Abstract: In recent years, the resistance of bacteria has increased year by year, as well as the frequency of food-borne diseases outbreaks, in order to improve the microbial safety and to extend the shelf life, non-thermal disinfection technology has attracted increasing attention in the field of food processing. In the past twenty years, a lot of research has been done on pulsed light (PL). Compared with thermization, PL shows excellent characteristics in safety and efficiency. The color, aroma and taste of food can be better preserved. In particular, fresh-cut product, meat and fish are vulnerable to microbial effects due to the high sensitivity, thus mild sterilization measures are needed. This review summarized a series of new research findings of PL sterilization technology in food preservation in the past decade, including the factors affecting microbial inactivation and the related applications.