Nitrosamines are a type of highly hazardous chemical carcinogens that are easily generated during the processing of meat products. The most common of these are nitrosodimethylamine, diethyl nitrosamine, nitrosopyrrolidine, nitrosopiperidine and nitrosodibutylamine. This article describes the formation mechanism of nitrosamines, the harm to human body and the factors that affect the formation of nitrosamines in meat products, including pH, temperature, food additives, tissue element and microorganisms,ect. And it also summarizes the research status of nitrosamine control on the basis of reducing the intake of precursors(control the use of nitrite and biogenic amines), blocking the formation of nitrosamine, and promoting the decomposition of nitrosamine (irradiation degradation and biodegradation). At present, controls of nitrosamines in meat products has been studied to some extent, which are blocking the source and promoting the way to provide some reference value for the control of nitrosamines in actual production. However, more studies are needed to explore ways to combine multiple methods to reduce the content of nitrosamines.