Abstract: Escherichia coli is naturally found in the intestinal tracts of all warm-blooded animals, including humans.The presence of E.coli in food or water means that the food or drinking water may directly or indirectly polluted by manure.In order to ensure food safety, it is necessary to detect E. coli in food. The traditional detection methods have some problems, such as time- consuming, low sensitivity, and so on. PCR technology can solve these problems well.The PCR technique is a rapid amplification of specific genes or DNA sequences, which can detect pathogenic microorganisms rapidly.Because PCR technology has the advantages of high speed, high specificity and low cost, it is widely applied in rapid detection.In this paper, the application of several main PCR technologies on foodborne E.coli was summarized.