The invention discloses a product packaging surface defect detection and classification method based on machine vision. The method comprises the steps of 1, acquiring a high-definition color image of defect-free product packaging, making the high-definition color image into a standard image, conducting real-time shooting with a camera, conducting online acquisition of a high-definition color image of product packaging to be detected, and making the high-definition color image as an image to be detected; 2, conducting image matching on the image to be detected and the standard image based on SURF algorithm; 3, conducting difference image operation on the two images matched in step 2 to obtain a defective image; 4, conducting feature extraction on the defective image to obtain the geometrical features and color features of the defective image; 5, classifying product packaging surface defects by means of RBF neural network algorithm. Automatic defect detection and classification are conducted by means of a machine vision system, human factor interference can be avoided, labor cost is reduced greatly, and then huge hidden cost caused by training and management when artificial detection is adopted is avoided.