Abstract: A summary on the in vitro experimental methods and principles for the elimination of O2•、•OH、H2O2 andDPPH• free radicals by health functional foods .The chemical methods in witch system the free radicals can be produced fordetecting the elimination effect on the free radicals were introduced. In these methods, by the production of color changes or lightemission phenomenon can be identified indirectly the free radical content or by detecting the oxygen tension changes to identifythe free radical content directly. The experiments showed, adding the health functional food having the elimination effect on thefree radicals to the detecting system, the free radicals in the system minimized, according to this, the quality of the healthfunctional food for the elimination free radical effect can be ascertained, The in vitro detection is fast and sensitive, it’s good forpreliminary screening the eliminating free radical health functional food.

Key words: health food, anti-oxidation, free radical, in vitro experimental method