<p>Food and food products are prone to microbial spoilage owing to their nutritional profile. The bacterial specie not only degrades the quality of food but also produces toxins that are lethal to the humans. Hence detecting pathogenic microbes in food and food products is necessary for well-being and food security of people. Detecting these pathogens by culturing method is laborious, time consuming and very slow process. Therefore, for detection of these dangerous food borne pathogens numerous culture independent techniques have been utilized in recent years. The advanced and rapid techniques for pathogen detection were phage based, nucleic acid based or immunoassay based. Some of these advanced and rapid methods, particularly phage based techniques are promising in terms of cost, speed and sensitivity compared to traditional old culturing methods for pathogen testing of foods. This comprehensive review reviews an outline of these advanced and rapid methods, their testing applicability, advantages and disadvantage and confers their contemporary restrictions and impending scenarios in relation to discovery of dangerous microbes in food products.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>