Consumers are increasingly concerned about the origin of foods, so the geographical origin of foods has been a major topic of debate and extensive research. Various instrumental methods (e.g. high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), electronic nose, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), DNA analysis, multi-isotope analysis) in conjunction with statistical analysis, were developed and applied in attempt to provide reliable answers to their geographical origin. This study reviews current developments in the application of various methods for a clear geographical origin of foods. The limitation of discrimination analysis for geographical origin was also discussed.