Abstract: With the increasing demand for food freshness, time-temperature indicator (TTI) has been used as an effective monitoring tool to estimate the remaining shelf life of all kinds of fresh food. TTI is a device for recording the time and temperature history of food and it is achieved by irreversible phenomenon caused by the cumulative effect of time and temperature, which helps to ensure the quality and safety of food, but its application is limited by its high cost, unstable performance, and slow response rate. In this paper, the working principle and the latest research progress of physical, chemical, biological and complex TTIs are summarized, their advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The kinetics modeling and activation energy calculation methods of TTI, the application of TTI and the existing challenges are reviewed, and the research trend of TTI is prospected.