Abstract: With the enhancement of people's awareness of healthy diet, the innovation of food function has become a hot topic. Self-microemulsion system is an anhydrous pre-concentration system which contains a mixture of oil phase, surfactants, co-surfactants, and bioactive substances in a certain proportion. Food bioactive substances can be loaded in self-microemulsion system, which can improve the bioavailability of food bioactive substances. Moreover, it also fully exerts the physiological and pharmacological activities of food bioactive substances. In this paper, the basic properties, components and preparation methods of self-microemulsion are systematically reviewed. Further, the application examples of self-microemulsion system to promote bioactive substances bio-utilization in food field in recent years are summarized, which provides a reference for the application of self-microemulsion system in food field.