Few of the S. aureus strains recovered from retail meats in this study possessed several toxin genes including enterotoxins. Molecular typing of a subset of the recovered isolates showed that they are highly diverse where spa typing was more discriminatory than PFGE. Even though the prevalence of enterotoxin genes in beef livers was lower than beef and pork meats, care should be taken not to leave beef livers for longer periods of time at room temperature prior to cooking to reduce the chance of thermostable enterotoxin production, particularly as livers are usually not overcooked.