Mid-infrared spectroscopy and near-infrared spectroscopy are important analysis methods in modern analytical chemistry, which are the important technical means for human beings to recognize the structure, function, components and content of substances. Minor coarse cereals generally refer to a variety of grains and beans with a short growth period, small planting areas, special planting areas and methods, and special purposes, which are characterized by small, small, special and miscellaneous. Being rich in nutrition, minor coarse cereals are not only traditional rations but also healthy food resources. With the improvement of people’s living standards and dietary structure, minor coarse cereals, as a new food resource with the same origin as medicine and food, play an important role in modern green health food. The quality detection of minor coarse cereals will provide reliable data support for the research of bioactive substances, quality classification, minor coarse cereals breeding, origin traceability and authenticity identification of small cereals. The literature on quality testing of minor coarse cereals in China in recent 30 years were summarized according to the classification of wheat minor coarse cereals and legume minor coarse cereals. It was demonstrated by the research result that there are more literature on the quality testing of wheat minor coarse cereals, accounting for about 2/3 of the literature, and the application of near-infrared spectroscopy is the majority; there are relatively little literature on the quality testing of legume minor coarse cereals, accounting for about 1/3 of the literature, and the application of mid-infrared spectroscopy is the majority. Many important applications in the quality testing and analysis of minor coarse cereals were carried out by mid-infrared and near-infrared spectroscopy. Among them, mid-infrared spectroscopy is more applied to characterize the active substances in minor coarse cereals and the processing of minor coarse cereals. However, near-infrared spectroscopy is more applied to the quantitative analysis and testing of main qualities such as crude protein, crude fat and moisture in minor coarse cereals, which can provide an efficient data source for minor coarse cereals quality monitoring and scientific breeding. In recent years, with the development of chemometrics and the progress of computer technology, near-infrared spectroscopy is no longer limited to the quantitative analysis of qualities of minor coarse cereals but is also applied to the traceability of it, which has achieved good results. Finally, the application of mid-infrared and near-infrared spectroscopy in non-destructive analysis and testing of small grain quality has prospected.