Although seafood species identification has traditionally relied on morphological analysis, sometimes this is difficult to apply for the differentiation among penaeid shrimps owing to their phenotypic similarities and to the frequent removal of external carapace during processing. The objective of this review is to provide an updated and extensive overview on the molecular methods for shrimp and prawn species authentication, in which several omics approaches based on protein and DNA analysis are described. DNA‐based methods include the amplification by PCR of different genes, commonly the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA and cytochrome oxidase I genes. A recently described method based on RFLP coupled to PCR turned out to be particularly interesting for species differentiation and origin identification. Protein analysis methods for the characterization and detection of species‐specific peptides are also summarized, emphasizing some novel proteomics‐based approaches, such as phyloproteomics, peptide fragmentation, and species‐specific peptide detection by HPLC coupled to multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) MS, the latter representing the fastest method described to date for species authentication in food.