Abstract: Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most important foodborne pathogens. Rapid detection is of vital importance for the prevention and control of outbreaks caused by this bacterial pathogen. Biological recognition elements are the core of rapid detection. As the emerging biological recognition element, nucleic acid aptamers are easy to be prepared and modified, and have high affinity and specificity that can be combined with targets well, which have great potential and advantages when applied in the detection of foodborne pathogens. For the sake of broadening research ideas on development and application of detection methods for Staphylococcus aureus, aptamer screening technologies and detection methods based on aptamers are reviewed in this article.