Abstract: The sources and characteristics of the wastewater from food manufacturing industry were introduced in details, the situations of discharge standards related to food manufacturing industry in China systematically reviewed, and the application scope and control items and limits discussed. The results indicate that the application scope covered by related industrial water pollutants discharge standards is incomplete, and there are some overlaps among the standards, with similar control items and limits. These problems have certain negative impacts on effective control of food manufacturing industry water pollutants. Accordingly, the pollution prevention and control systems, the pollutant generation and emission analysis methods, and the concept of whole process pollution control in food manufacturing industry of European Union (EU) were studied. The referential significance of EU pollution control was discussed. Finally, some suggestions for the development of water pollutants discharge standard in food manufacturing industry of China were proposed, including strengthening the concept of whole process pollution control, enhancing scientific and systematic analysis of pollutant generation and emission, and improving setting of the water pollutant discharge standard system.