The treatment of carbon cloth with concentrated or dilute acid to produce hydrophilic carbon-based flexible electrodes raises environmental pollution concerns. This study utilized a green, rapid, and cost-effective dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) technique was utilized for the hydrophilic modification of conductive hydrophobic carbon cloth. A nitrite electrochemical sensor was constructed by depositing high specific surface area pom-pom FeOOH on modified carbon cloth through a constant potential electrochemical in-situ deposition method. The FeOOH/CC binder-free self-supporting electrode demonstrates nitrite detection capabilities within linear ranges of 0.5–900 µM and 1 mM–10 mM, boasting a detection limit of 0.154 µM (S/N = 3). This sensor exhibits excellent interference immunity, stability, and reproducibility. Its application in detecting nitrite in ham sausage and tap water samples yields 97.00 % to 101.33 % recovery rates, respectively, comparable to UV spectrophotometry results, affirming the sensor’s accuracy and practical feasibility. This straightforward and swift carbon material modification technique presents a novel approach for crafting carbon cloth electrochemical sensors.