Microorganism contamination and foodborne disease outbreaks are of public concern worldwide. As such, the food industry requires rapid and nondestructive methods to detect microorganisms and to control food quality. However, conventional methods such as culture and colony counting, polymerase chain reaction, and immunoassay approaches are laborious, time‐consuming and require trained personnel. Therefore, the emergence of rapid analytical methods is essential. This review introduces 6 spectroscopic and spectral imaging techniques that apply infrared spectroscopy, surface‐enhanced Raman spectroscopy, terahertz time‐domain spectroscopy, laser‐induced breakdown spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging, and multispectral imaging for microorganism detection. Recent advances of these technologies from 2011 to 2017 are outlined. Challenges in the application of these technologies for microorganism detection in food matrices are addressed. These emerging spectroscopic and spectral imaging techniques have the potential to provide rapid and nondestructive detection of microorganisms. They should also provide complementary information to enhance the performance of conventional methods to prevent disease outbreaks and food safety problems.