The paper aims to introduce the advances of microbial source food preservatives in recent five years and to provide theoretical foundation and novel methods for the development of efficient, non-toxic and natural food preservatives. Several microbial food preservatives including bacterial preservative, fungal preservative and microbial active metabolites (Nisin, ε-polylysine, lysozyme and natamycin) were summarized, and their antibacterial mechanism and existing problems were briefly introduced. Microbial source food preservatives generally could generally inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria, reduce the incidence of fruit and vegetable diseases, maintain good sensory quality and physical-chemical characteristics by nutrition competition, inducing system resistance and producing active metabolites etc., thereby extending food shelf-life. Microbial preservatives provided a novel pathway for food preservation and storage. But the antibacterial mechanism and potential toxicity should be further clarified, and the studies to improve the stability of microbial preservatives against adverse environment are needed.