Phytates have been considered as a major concern in human diet due to its antinutrient/chelating behaviour for divalent minerals such as Ca2+, Mg2+, Zn2+ and Fe2+. Because of having a high potential for binding positively charged proteins, amino acids, and/or multivalent cations or minerals in foods phytic acid form complexes that are insoluble, difficult to hydrolyze during digestion, and thus, typically are nutritionally less available for absorption. Reduction of phytates can be achieved through both enzymatic and nonenzymatic removal. Various food processing techniques like soaking, malting, hydrothermal treatment and fermentation increases the activity of the naturally occurring plant phytases. Biotechnologically produced phytases may be possible for use tomorrow in food processing as well as plant raw material and starter cultures with inserted phytase genes. Role of phytases in dietary nutrition and their application with respect to breadmaking process, probiotics, animal feed supplement and transgenic crops are also emphasised in this paper.