Antimicrobial peptide-based magnetic separation combined with multiplex PCR for the simultaneous detection of multiple foodborne pathogens in food samples

• A broad-spectrum bacterial enrichment strategy was developed using antimicrobial peptide-modified magnetic beads (MBs@AMP). • The method combined with mPCR simultaneously detects five foodborne pathogens in fruit juice samples. • This approach eliminates food matrix interference and improves detection sensitivity by 100-fold compared to conventional PCR.