Abstract: Food safety is critical to public health and social stability. Point-of-care testing technologies enable real-time monitoring and swift responses to potential risks. Among these, paper-based sensing technology stands out as a key tool, driving continuous innovation in food safety analysis. This review first outlines the working principles of paper-based sensing technology, then provides a detailed classification of paper-based sensing technology types, with a focus on common signal reading modes in microfluidic paper-based analytical devices. Subsequently, by sorting out the research progress of this technology in the field of food safety, it is shown that the use of paper-based sensing technology products can achieve point of care testing trace contaminants in food. Finally, challenges encountered in applying paper-based sensing technology for food safety analysis are discussed, and the prospects for building a precise and efficient intelligent food safety supervision system based on paper-based sensing technology are presented. In conclusion, paper-based sensing technology, with its advantages of convenience and rapid response, provides an effective pathway for point-of-care testing in food safety.