Food safety problems caused by excessive metals have potential health hazards related to people’s heath. The development of rapid detection technology for heavy metals in food is an effective means to prevent food with excessive heavy metals from entering the market. However, the accuracy and stability of the rapid detection of heavy metals in food is difficult to be guaranteed due to the low limit of the target element and the interference of sample matrix after pretreatment. Adsorption materials could have good accumulation on heavy metals, and are effective to remove the matrix of food, which provides technical support for the realization of rapid detection of heavy metals in food. Based on the analysis and summary of the current research on the application of adsorption materials for detecting heavy metals in food, the advantages and disadvantages of adsorption materials including absorbability and limit of detection were discussed, and the development trend in the future was also prospected.