In recent years， with the improvement of people's living standards， the enhancement of health awareness and the acceleration of the pace of life， fresh-cut fruits and vegetables are increasingly favored by consumers due to its characteristics of convenient， safe， nutritious and fresh. However， cutting causes fruit and vegetable suffer irreparable mechanical damage， which may active its own defense system to synthesize phenolic substance secondary metabolites in order to resist and repair mechanical damage and enhance the antioxidant activity of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. The pretreatment fresh-cutting operation improved the antioxidant and health benefits of fruits and vegetables has received widespread attention from postharvest scholars. In particular， it has the important progress on improving the potential nutritional value of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables based on physiological and biochemical studies on the biosynthesis mechanism of phenolic substances. Collectively， this paper reviewed the biosynthetic mechanism of phenolic substances and their antioxidant activity in fresh-cut fruits and vegetables， which aimed to provide a theoretical basis for elucidating that fresh-cut fruits and vegetables， as pre-processed products， produced more phenols and further improved the antioxidant activity of fresh fruits and vegetables. Meanwhile， this paper will provide new insights into the method that can effectively improve the phenolic substances content and antioxidant activity in fresh-cut fruits and vegetables.