Instrument-free methods for detection of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) in samples of drinkable dairy products and meat broth using immunochromatography (IC) and dot-assay were developed. A conjugate of monoclonal antibodies (MA) to SEA with colloid gold (CG) was used as the detecting component in IC; the MA-CG conjugate or biotinylated SEA antibodies and streptavidin-peroxidase conjugate (STR-HRP) were used for conducting the dot-assay. The results of the SEA analysis with the developed method and with the immunoenzymatic assay (IEA) were compared. The limit of detection in ng/mL was: 10 (IC), 20 (dot analysis, MA-CG), 10 (dot analysis, STR-HRP), and 4 (IEA). The analysis time in min was: 25 (IC), 60 (dot-assay, MA-CG), 70 (dot-assay, STR-HRP), and 150 (IEA). The simplicity and availability of the developed instrumentless detection methods allow conducting single and mass testing in low-resource laboratories as well as outside laboratories. © 2014 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.