Abstract: With the improvement of people’s living standards, food safety has attracted more and more social attention. Organisms, especially microorganisms, are the most important factor that affects food safety. There are many methods currently available to detect biological (microbial) factors in the field of food safety, including isothermal amplification technology especially the new techniques of recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA), recombinase-aided amplification (RAA) and enzymatic recombinase amplification (ERA), which is widely used for food safety detection because it can detect biological ingredients rapidly and accurately without relying on complicated instruments. The three isothermal amplification techniques require milder reaction conditions and simpler design of primers than others, despite having similar principles. In this article, we review the principles and concepts of these techniques and their recent application in the rapid detection of food pathogens, summarize their advantages and problems in food inspection, and present future prospects.

Key words: recombinase polymerase amplification; recombinase-aided amplification; enzymatic recombinase amplification; foodborne pathogens; rapid detection