Abstract: Foodborne pathogen is one of the major factors which cause food safety issues like human foodborne diseases. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) has an effective antagonistic action against pathogenic bacteria in food by ecological niche competition in which forms an acidic environment and produces various antimicrobial endproducts. This article summarized the antibacterial mechanism, characteristics and advantages of bio-protective agent and research into the antagonism of various foodborne pathogens using LAB and the application of LAB in dairy products, meat products, marine products and fruit and vegetable products, which could fully develop new LAB resource and provide an reference to use the LAB bio-protective agent to control the pathogenic bacteria in food.