Abstract: Formaldehyde is a common organic compound, which is widely used in the chemical industry and has many residues in food and drugs. Formaldehyde is harmful to the respiratory, nervous and endocrine systems of the human body. At present, the main quantitative methods for formaldehyde determination include spectrophotometry, chromatography, electrochemical methods, fluorescence, and etc. The application of high performance liquid chromatography in the detection of formaldehyde was mainly studied, through the collation of over 40 related literatures from the past decade. The research objects, derivatization reagents and chromatographic conditions involved in the literatures were reviewed and analyzed, and the application direction and prospects of high performance liquid chromatography in the field of formaldehyde determination were prospected, so as to provide a reference for related detection and scientific researchers.