Factors affecting the freshness of fruits and vegetables consist of temperature, humidity, gas composition, microorganism and preservation materials. The preservation principle and preservation effect of three kinds of preservation materials were described. The preservative agent had the defects of being harmful and the high production cost，while the non-degradable plastic film was likely to cause environmental pollution. The functional preservation carton was an environment-friendly product, which represented one of the main development trends of fresh fruit and vegetable packaging. The research direction of future fruit and vegetable preservation would be the fresh-keeping materials with moderate low temperature treatment.