1 Introduction: a brief guide to targets and strategies of functional nucleic acids detection in food safety -- 2 Adaptable methods to extract nucleic acid targets and evaluate quality -- 3 Basic rules in nucleic acids-mediated amplification and hybridization methods in food safety detection: a review -- 4 Reference materials: a golden criterion in nucleic acids identification -- 5 Reference gene: in-species universality versus between-species uniquity -- 6 PCR-based technologies for identifying unknown gene sequences -- 7 A developed accurate digital PCR detection technology in food safety -- 8 Development of accurate nucleic acids detection technology for target quantification -- 9 Recent progress in high-throughput detection technology for food safety -- 10 Detecting targets without thermal cycling in food: isothermal amplification and hybridization -- 11 Aptamers and their application -- 12 Lateral Flow Nucleic Acid Biosensors -- 13 Nucleic Acid Biosensors for food safety -- 14 Alternative PCR methods for detecting GM crops & food in agriculture and the food chain: a review -- 15 The identification and detection technology of research in microorganism include living or dead bacteria -- 16 Characterization of microbial diversity in food chain: a molecular review -- 17 Identification and assessment of heavy metal pollution using nucleic acid-mediated technologies -- 18 Genotoxicity detection at the molecular level in food safety assessment: conventional methods and developments -- 19 A molecular review of the detection of specific nucleic acids by amplification and hybridization Characterization of microbial diversity in the food chain: a molecular review.