Abstract: With economic development and social progress, consumers are paying more and more attention to food safety and quality. Traditional packaging techniques are difficult to monitor food quality in real time. Therefore, intelligent packaging technologies represented by freshness indicator films have emerged. Bioactive compounds, due to their degradability, antioxidant properties and biosafety, have become the core materials for constructing green and intelligent indicator films. This article systematically reviewed the application and challenges of bioactive substances in food intelligent indicator films. It was found that nanocellulose had high loading and response characteristics, and it not only protected the activity of loaded substances but also had good loading characteristics for liposoluble substances; Chemical modification could endow cellulose derivative substrates with excellent water or organic solubility, making them easy to form films; Polysaccharide materials could not only provide structural support and load platforms, but also achieved intelligent responses by responding to environmental stimuli; Protein-based degradable materials could be used to prepare hydrophilic or hydrophobic property indicator films and applied in various foods. Flavonoids, phenols and quinone pigments in natural indicators could achieve the effect of preservation and monitoring through color changes in different pH environments by being compounded with other materials. Real-time monitoring of the freshness of meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables and dairy products could be achieved by utilizing the color reaction between different spoilage and deterioration signals and indicator films. Future research should focus on developing high-performance carriers and more stable indicators to expand the application scenarios of intelligent indicator films, thereby achieving purer, more efficient and stable green packaging applications.