Gastric emptying is important for measuring digestive tract function and plays an indispensable role inthe research on etiology, diagnosis and treatment of digestive diseases. In recent years, a series of detection methods hasbeen used to measure gastric emptying in humans: intubation, real-time ultrasound, radionuclide imaging and respiratorytesting. However, these method are relatively rarely used in laboratory animals. A method for evaluating the gastricemptyingability of laboratory animals correctly is very valuable for the study of the drug bioavailability and gastrointestinaldiseases. In this review, we discuss some of the methods commonly used for detection of gastric emptying in humans. We hope that we can provide some new ideas for detection of gastric emptying in animals.