Biofilms are communities of microorganisms adhered to surfaces. These are enclosed in sticky substances called extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), forming higher multicellular structures that allow microorganisms to resist adverse environmental conditions, such as nutrient absence, drought, pH extremes, host immune responses, and many other antimicrobial interventions (Ciofu et al., 2022; Pai et al., 2023). Biofilms also containing pathogenic microorganisms can develop on a wide range of abiotic surfaces, such as those encountered in food processing and medical sectors, allowing the enclosed microorganisms to persist even after regular cleaning and disinfection procedures, possibly leading to cross-contamination of foods, foodborne disease outbreaks and hard to treat infections (Charron et al., 2023). As editors of this Research Topic on pathogen-harboring biofilm on abiotic surfaces in the food and clinical sectors, we were delighted to receive and review some fascinating research articles within this field. This editorial briefly reports the main findings, conclusions, and perspectives of each accepted article.