Objective To introduce the research status of sustained-release antimicrobial packaging in food packaging. Methods The Paper discussed its development status from the experimental and theoretical aspects in detail and pointed out the current research bottleneck. Results In the experimental aspect, it mainly focused on single-layer antibacterial materials, lacking in-depth research into the factors impacting the release process. In the theoretical aspect, it rarely involved the investigation of release mechanism of the active ingredients. Conclusion Sustained-release antimicrobial packaging research is still in its infancy and there are many issues to be solved in the future, such as processing methods, environmental conditions and food -material interface effects on sustained-release kinetics etc.