Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a technique in which target molecules are adsorbed onto a nanometerrough metal surface, significantly enhancing the Raman signal. SERS has the advantages of high sensitivity, no interference from water, simple operation, rapidness, non-destructive testing and so on, and has become a research hotspot in food, chemistry, medical science and so on. Liquid food (e.g., milk, edible oil, drinks, honey, wine) is indispensable for human survival and daily life. The safety of liquid food is related to consumers health and the enterprises benefit, so it is very important to detect the safety of liquid food quickly and in real-time. Liquid food-related safety indicators such as antibiotic residues, pesticide residues, pigments, illegal additives, etc. Usually have strong Raman activity, and using the “fingerprint” characteristic of SERS technology, trace substances in liquid food can be quickly and accurately detected qualitatively and quantitatively. Compared with other spectroscopic techniques, the non-interference of water in SERS technology is simpler to detect and analyze the matrix of aqueous solution samples (e.g., milk, beverage and wine). It has more potential to realize online real-time detection of liquid food quality and safety, and it is a frontier analytical technique with great application potential and prospects in the field of liquid food quality and safety detection. This paper briefly describes the enhancement principles of SERS technology and summarizes the relevant SERS substrate research in the field of liquid food safety testing, and focuses on the application and research status of SERS technology in the field of liquid food quality detection, summarizes recent research work and progress in liquid food-related safety (e.g., lipid oxidation, antibiotic residues, pesticide residues, wine origin identification) in terms of sample pre-treatment methods, substrate types and detection limits; discusses the advantages and limitations of SERS technology, as well as the main challenges and future development prospects.