This review gives an overview of current knowledge about 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) formation and detection. Although 3-MCPD is often mentioned with regard to soy sauce and acid-hydrolysed vegetable protein (HVP), and much research has been done in that area, the emphasis here is placed on other foods. This contaminant can be found in a great variety of foodstuffs and is difficult to avoid in our daily nutrition. Despite its low concentration in most foods, its carcinogenic properties are of general concern. Its formation is a multivariate problem influenced by factors such as heat, moisture and sugar/lipid content, depending on the type of food and respective processing employed. Understanding the formation of this contaminant in food is fundamental to not only preventing or reducing it, but also developing efficient analytical methods of detecting it. Considering the differences between 3-MCPD-containing foods, and the need to test for the contaminant at different levels of food processing, one would expect a variety of analytical approaches. In this review, an attempt is made to provide an up-to-date list of available analytical methods and to highlight the differences among these techniques. Finally, the emergence of 3-MCPD esters and analytical techniques for them are also discussed here, although they are not the main focus of this review.