Abstract: Psychrophilic enzymes contribute to the adaptation of low temperature microorganisms to the low temperature environments.Psychrophilic enzymes have been widely applied to biotechnology because of their characteristic which showed catalytic efficiency at low or moderate temperatures but inactivated at high temperature. In this paper, the resources, structure characteristics and cold adaptation mechanisms of the psychrophilic enzymes were summarized, and the application prospects of these enzymes in food industry were also reviewed.