Ochratoxins are the major components of mycotoxin that exist extensively in plant origin food. In the ochratoxins group, ochratoxin A (OTA) as the most toxic compound, which possesses a high chemical and thermal stability in foodstuff and would do harm to human beings. Hence, it is imperative to develop a simple, rapid, sensitive, robust, and accurate way to determine OTA. Nanomaterial-based biosensors seem to be ideal analysis tools for identifying OTA on account of their tremendous merits, such as high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, simplicity of operation, and rapidity. This review focuses on the application and development of nanomaterial-enabled biosensors in OTA detection in the past years (2007–2018). Three dominant signal transduction mechanisms, i.e. optical, electrochemical, and piezoelectric, are discussed in details. Moreover, the major challenges and perspectives for future developments of OTA biosensors are also contained to provide an overview for the forthcoming research orientation.