The conventional methods for microbial viability quantification require cultivation and are laborious. There is consequently a widespread need for cultivation-free methods. The adenosine triphosphate (ATP) bioluminescence-sensing assay is considered an extremely effective biosensor; hence ATP is the energy currency of all living microbes and can be used as a rapid indicator of microbial viability. We developed an ATP bioluminescence-sensing assay to detect microbial viability. A bioluminescent recombinant E. coli strain was used with luciferase extracted from transformed bacteria. Results showed that there is a direct correlation between the bioluminescence intensity of the ATP bioluminescence-sensing assay and the microbial viability. Bacterial counts from food samples were detected using the developed sensing assay and validated by the traditional plate-counting method. Compared with the plate-counting method, ATP bioluminescence-sensing assay is a more rapid and efficient approach for detecting microbial viability.