Objective To study and compare the prevalence of enterotoxin genes in foodborne Staphylococcus aureus isolates from food-poisoning and food inspection.Methods Isolates from food-poisoning and food inspection were tested by PCR method with five pairs of primers for sea,seb,sec,sed and see genes.Enterotoxin was analyzed in isolates from food-poisoning isolates with mini-VIDAS.Results 30 out of 110 samples were enterotoxin gene positive(27.3%,30/110) and only one type of enterotoxin gene existed in all positive samples.Both enterotoxin and relative gene of seb were found in 14 isolates from two food-poisoning events(100%,14/14).16 isolates from 96 food inspection samples were enterotoxin gene positive(16.7%,16/96),including 4 strains of sea,2 seb,4 sec and 6 sed.Conclusion Enterotoxin genes of sea,seb,sec and sed were found in Staphylococcus aureus isolates in Ningbo.Enterotoxin of seb is the major factor of food-poisoning caused by Staphylococcus aureus.