The work aims to review the application status and recent research progress of intelligent label in packaging at home and abroad. The definition of intelligent packaging was elaborated. An introduction to the recent research progress and application status of intelligent label was made according to the existing literature. The latest research achievements and application status of intelligent labels, such as time-temperature intelligent label (TTI), freshness label and radio frequency identification (RFID) were introduced emphatically. Finally, some suggestions for future research and commercialization of intelligent label were proposed. As a new technology applied in packaging, the intelligent label has had great development and been commercially applied. Although some research achievements are made in China, it is short of commercial applications. In general, the development of intelligent label in China is still at the start-up stage, but it has enormous development potentials, and it is the development direction of future packaging technology in China.