Supplementation of pre-enrichment broth and enrichment broth media with ferrioxamine E (1 microgram/ml) significantly improved the recovery of Salmonella from artificially or naturally contaminated foods. Based on the selectivity of ferrioxamine E, Salmonella enteritidis and S. typhimurium could be isolated also from various mixed cultures (one Salmonella cell in 10(3)-10(4)-fold concentration of cells of competitors) by shaking for 6 h in supplemented buffered peptone water followed by cultivation on XLD- or XLT-4 agars. Isolation of Salmonella from these pre-enrichment cultures by use of Dynabeads-Anti-Salmonella was highly effective. 27 S. typhimurium strains were isolated from 762 naturally infected chicken giblets by use of unsupplemented Tetrathionate broth. However, 33 S. typhimurium isolates were obtained with ferrioxamine E-supplemented Tetrathionate broth from the same samples. Three Salmonella isolates out of 50 evenly divided meat meal samples were obtained by use of ferrioxamine E-supplemented buffered peptone water followed by direct streaking onto XLD- and Rambach agars, no Salmonella isolates could be detected by the conventional method.