Abstract: Listeria monocytogenes is an important food-borne pathogen, causing more and more attentions in recent years. The traditional enrichment and isolation of bacteria are still the gold standard for detection of Listeria despite the fast development of molecular biological diagnosis methods. This paper provides insight to the principle of different kinds of Listeria selective media and compares their detection efficiency. In addition, the shortage of currently used selective media was analyzed for the purpose of developing new isolation methods and the novel selective media to improve Listeria isolation.