The hazardous chemical substances in food can linings include bisphenol A, bisphenol A diglycidyl ether, bisphenol F, bisphenol F diglycidyl ether, novolac glycidyl ether and their derivatives, etc. Related prohibition has been issued on these harmful chemicals internationally. Common methods of food can testing pretreatment include liquid-liquid extraction, solid phase extraction and solid-phase microextraction extraction, etc., while detection methods of hazardous chemical substances in food can linings are high performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography-mass spectro- metry and enzyme-linked immunoassay assay. The migration mechanism of hazardous substances is still unclear and the detection methods lack optimization. The research progress about hazardous substances in the can’s inner coatings and testing methods are elaborated. The study direction of the field is to find an accurate and simple method for detecting a variety of harmful substances and to reinforce the establishment of the transport model of harmful chemical substances.