A CoFe2O4 nanoparticles based NMR method for rapid detection of food-borne pathogenic bacteria belongs to the technical field of rapid detection of pathogenic bacteria in food safety. The invention is dependent on an established nuclear magnetic resonance detection method applicable to pathogenic bacteria in food samples, and uses the effect of paramagnetic property of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles on relaxation time of nuclear magnetic resonance to detect target bacteria in a sample. Different specific corresponding relationship is as below: nano CoFe2O4 nanoparticles under certain conditions show linear relationship, namely when the content of CoFe2O4 nanoparticles is higher, the spin-lattice relaxation time value of the sample is smaller, so as to quantitatively detect the target bacteria in a certain range. The method can be used for rapid detection of harmful pathogenic bacteria in food samples, therefore the method can be used for rapid screening of a large number of samples.