Abstract: Foodborne pathogens, a major cause of foodborne disease outbreaks, are a great threat to human life and health. In this context, rapid and accurate detection of foodborne pathogens is of great interest. In recent years, electrochemical biosensors as a fast, sensitive and simple detection method have been widely studied, and most studies focus on the development and immobilization of recognition elements and the application of electrochemical biosensors in sample detection. Phages, bacterial viruses specifically infect their hosts, can be used as an important recognition element in electrochemical biosensor for the detection of foodborne pathogens. Compared with enzyme, antibody, nucleic acid and other recognition elements, phages are easier to obtain, more tolerant to the environment, and more stable. Simultaneous phage-based electrochemical techniques with impedance and amperometric probes have gained increasing attention and been applied due to their high sensitivity. In this paper, the phage immobilization methods and the current status of the application of phages in electrochemical biosensors are described, and future trends are also discussed.

Key words: foodborne pathogens; bacteriophage; electrochemical biosensor; immobilization method