Most of developed countries have entered the aging society in the world, and the global aging is increasingly serious. China entered in 1999, and now is in the accelerated development period. For successful aging, appropriate nutrition is a major determinant. Most age-related diseases can be prevented by taking appropriate nutritional interventions and eating foods rich in nutrients and antioxidants. In order to provide a reference for the current and future research and development in China, a comprehensive bibliometric visual analysis of the global elderly food research based on the Web of Science database from 1990 to 2020 was applied to reflect scientific influences and capabilities of relevant countries, understand the in-depth cooperation between countries, research institutions and authors, then to reveal the research hotspots and frontiers. The results showed that the total number of publications increases substantially in recent years, suggesting that more and more researchers have begun to pay attention to this field. A total of 64 countries or regions, 852 research institutions and 236 journals have carried out researches in this field. The United States is the major contributor to this research in the world. In addition, Japan, Netherlands, England, France, Brazil, Spain and other countries have also conducted in-depth research. Especially Spain, Norway, Netherlands and Sweden have surpassed the United States according to the number of citations per article. For China, high-quality research is still relatively rare. There is a huge gap between China and countries with better research. The University of Sao Paulo in Brazil is the most published research institution, and Duke University in the United States is the most cited institution in the world, both of which are all world-famous universities in history. It appears that most of the major research institutions are located in developed countries of Europe and America. At the same time, research institutions are very closely linked, and cross-regional cooperation and interdisciplinary integration are frequent. Two closest cooperation networks are very clear. The first is the network of Germany cooperation organization formed by more than ten institutions, such as University of Bonn, University of Leipzig and Technical University of Munich. The second the network of international cooperation organization formed by more than ten countries or regions, such as University of Athens in Greece, University of Lausanne in Switzerland and University of Innsbruck in Austria. The cooperation network in China is relatively weak, including the United States, France, England, Australia, Japan, Finland, Poland, etc. The main fields of global elderly food research are nutrition dietetics, food science and technology, geriatric gerontology, biochemistry and molecular biology, focusing on dietary supplement, health status and related risks. As the largest population country in the world, the research and development of the elderly foods are urgent and important in the period of accelerated aging development. The future research should be focused on the development of nutrient fortified food and functional food, strengthened the research on sensory modification based on the theory of geriatrics and nutrition, so as to meet the diversified nutritional needs of the elderly in respond to the global aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]