Foodborne diseases caused by pathogenic bacteria pose a serious threat to human health. Early and rapid detection of foodborne pathogens is urgently needed. The use of biosensors to identify and detect pathogenic bacteria has attracted ample attention because of their high sensitivity, near real-time quantification without enrichment, on-site detection, simple operation, and so on. As a promising alternative recognition element in biosensors, lectins have been widely studied in bacterial detection because of their high stability and low cost. In this review, we highlight the progress of lectin-based pathogen detection methods, including various electrochemical methods, optical methods and quartz crystal microbalance methods, as well as lectin based microfluidic methods. The interaction mechanism between lectins and bacterial recognition site-sugars is also studied. Finally, the future prospects and challenges in the development of lectin-based biosensors are discussed.