Abstract: β-Glucosidase,a well-known enzyme preparation,is very important and has been widely used in food,medicine,health industries due to the advantages of improving food flavor or producing active substances. β-glucosidases from the microbes has much more merits than it from plant,such as extensive sources,low price,easy to obtain and purify. In recent years,β-glucosidases from food microbial sources has attracted more attention. The characteristics of β-glucosidase from several sources including mould,yeast,lactic acid bacteria and other microorganism and its physicochemical properties and substrate specificity were summarized in this review. Furthermore,the development trend of β-glucosidase with the application in food industry was also prospected. In general,this paper provides the technology orientation and a theoretical basis for the industrial production of β-glucosidase from microbial sources.