Citric acid (CA) is a kind of natural organic acid, which has a high content in mature citric acid fruits such as lemon, passion fruit and red raspberry, resulting in sharp acidity of such fruits, and the palatability and sensory quality of processed products will be affected to varying degrees. Citric acid can be used by lactic acid bacteria to produce aromatic compounds such as diacetyl, acetoin and butanediol, and can also be transformed into multiple metabolites such as alcohol, acetaldehyde acid and succinic acid in yeast. The quality of citricacid type fruit processing products and flavor brought by different degradation pathways of citric acid have significant differences. In this paper, the pathways and metabolites of citric acid biodegradation by lactic acid bacteria and yeast were described in detail. The effects of pH and carbon source on citric acid biodegradation and the application of citric acid biodegradation in the processing of fruit juice and fruit wine were analyzed. The conditions limiting the use of lactic acid bacteria and yeast in citric acid biodegradation were pointed out, so as to provide theoretical basis and technical reference for the research and application of citric acid biodegradation.