Foodborne pathogens are a continuing disparate issue in world populace health, especially in the processed food system whereby the potential dangers of contamination are frequently displaced instead of eradicated in production and handling phases. The conventional culture-based detection techniques, despite their popularity, have drawbacks in terms of slow turnaround time and low sensitivity and pose problems with regards to detection of microbial hazards timely and accurately. Here, there has developed polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based methods as quick and extremely sensitive methods in the recognition of foodborne pathogens in complicated food substances. This paper will take a narrative review method, which will involve an overview of the literature on the subject that has been done by other researchers thus giving a critical analysis of the use of the PCR methods in detecting foodborne pathogens in processed foods. The review discusses key groups of pathogens, the trends in their occurrence in various types of processed foods, and the performance of the different types of PCR, such as conventional PCR, real-time PCR and multiplex PCR. The results show that although PCR has the benefit of augmenting sensitivity of detection and minimizing the time of analysis, it has major limitations especially in the differentiation of viable and non-viables, as well as analytical problems in the presence of inhibitory food matrixes. In addition, the rate of prevalence reported is seriously affected by the methodology used in detection thus casting doubts on exaggeration of contamination risk. All in all, the review can state that PCR is a potent, but not absolute instrument and its successful application in food safety demands critical interpretation and combination with the auxiliary detection methods.