Abstract: The analysis of photoinitiator residues was lately developed. The advanced high-sensitive analytical techniques have been usually applied to the analysis of photoinitiator residues because of their lower concentration level. In this paper, the definition of photoinitiators including Benzophenone, ITX, Irgacure 184, Irgacure 907, Irgacure 369, TPO, EHA was introduced as well as their types, sources and harmfulness. The detection technologies of photoinitiator residues, such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), paper chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry were summarized. Because of the technical limit of gas chromatography, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry was more commonly applied to the detection of photoinitiator residues. The different procedures of sample pretreatment, such as liquid-liquid extraction, accelerated solvent extraction (ASE), solid phase extraction (SPE), etc. were compared. Comparing with other pretreatment technologies, solid phase extraction is more mature and suitable for high-throughput analysis of photoinitiator residues. The detection of photoinitiator residues and the simultaneous detection of pesticide residues and veterinary drug residues are the direction of future development.