The safety situation and risk assessment methods of food contact materials were reviewed in this paper. The potential health hazards and relevant food safety events occurred in recent years were described in detail. The similarities and differences，pros and cons between the current conservative method used by the EU and consumption factor model used by US FDA were compared. This review provided an important reference for initiating the risk assessment of food packaging material in China and can been used as essential information for developing and improving the regulation framework and standard systems on food contact material.