The work aims to improve food quality and safety to meet the consumer's pursuit of safe and high-quality food, from the perspective of edible antibacterial coating and antibacterial plastic packaging. According to the characteristics of food decay cycle and shelf life, several main covering technologies of edible antibacterial coatings and carriers and preparation methods of non-edible antibacterial plastics, and how they were applied in food packaging design were systematically summarized. For perishable food with short shelf life and conventional food with long shelf life, a feasible packaging scheme is put forward. The development and research direction of edible antibacterial coating and non-edible antibacterial plastics in the field of future food packaging is analyzed.