Increasing safety events caused by products/food quality problems has caught more and more attention,therefore nondestructive fast detection of products/food quality becomes necessary.At present,fast detection methods commonly used include chemical colorimetric method,near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique,immunoassay method,bio-sensor technique,biomicroarray method,bioluminescence method,and so on.NIRS technique has found wide application in products/food quality detection because of its characteristics such as very high speed,no sample preparation,non-destruction,no pollution,low cost etc.Many research works have been done on products/food quality detection using NIRS technique both home and abroad,from static laboratory investigations to online investigations.In the present paper,basic knowledge of NIRS and its analysis process were briefly introduced.The applications of NIRS technique in online quality detection and control of fruit,fish,meat,milk,grain,fermentation of cheese and alcohol etc were reviewed.Finally,the existing problems of NIRS were pointed out and the prospect of NIRS technique was discussed.In the future,NIRS technique will combine with network technique to realize online update and upgrade of NIR models.And spectral imaging technique will be the development trend of NIRS technique in the 21st century.