The application of food self-heating technology can fully preheat the pre-made food to a suitable temperature in a short time to meet the consumer demand for delicious， safe， nutritious and convenient food in special application scenarios. Self-heating agent is an important heat source in food self-heating technology. However， there are few related researches on the heating law of self-heating agent and improving the self-heating efficiency of food. This paper analyzes the heating principle of various food self-heating agents， compares the thermal efficiency of various self-heating technologies， discusses the research progress of simulation and optimization of food reheating process， and summarizes the problems existing in self-heating foods and future research. The key direction is to provide technical support for the improvement of food self-heating technology and industrial application.