Objective To establish a rapid detection method for viable Salmonella based on specific phage infection and recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) in response to the key challenge that traditional molecular biological detection methods have difficulty in conveniently distinguishing between viable and non-viable foodborne pathogens.Methods Taking advantage of the characteristic that O-1 phage only proliferates in viable bacteria, the phage is added to the enriched sample. After further incubation, total DNA is extracted. Fluorescent RPA is used to determine whether the phage has significantly proliferated, so as to judge the presence of viable Salmonella in the original sample.Results After optimization, the optimal detection conditions are as follows: 100 μL of O-1 phage with a concentration of 3×10⁵ PFU/mL is added, and the infection and proliferation time is 3 hours. The detection limit of the method for phage DNA is 0.07 fg/μL, and that for viable Salmonella is 1.58×10² CFU/mL. The intra-generic inclusivity of the method is 100% when testing 37 Salmonella strains of different serotypes, and the inter-generic specificity is 100% when testing 17 non-Salmonella strains.Conclusion The method utilizes the characteristic that phages only rapidly proliferate in viable host bacteria, enabling highly sensitive and specific detection of viable Salmonella within 4 hours without a PCR thermal cycler. The method is suitable for on-site rapid screening and identification of viable Salmonella in food production and circulation processes, providing a new approach for the on-site detection of viable Salmonella in food.