Gums are added in small amounts to a variety of foods as emulsifying agents, stabilizers, and/or thickeners. Although gums maintain high viscosity levels in foods at low concentrations, this characteristic presents a problem when the foods are analyzed for bacterial contamination. Foods analyzed for Salmonella by the FDA Bacteriological analytical Manual procedure are preenriched at a 1:9 test portion/broth ratio. A 25 g mixture of gum in 225 mL lactose broth becomes viscous and nonpipettable after 24 h incubation at 35°C. To reduce the viscosity, cellulase was added to the test portion/preenrichment, and its effect was determined. The addition of cellulase to a final concentration of 0.01% in lactose broth reduced the viscosity of the guar gum/preenrichment mixture to a pipettable condition. One Salmonella cell was consistently recovered from 25 g of guar gum preenriched according to this procedure. Cellulase at a higher concentration of 0.1% in lactose broth effectively reduced the viscosity of preenrichments of carboxymethylcellulose gum, another type of thickening agent, but not those of gum ghatti, kappa-carrageenan gum, or gelatin. Other means of reducing viscosity, such as addition of enzymes (other than cellulase), addition of various inorganic salts, elevated incubation temperatures, and adjustment of pH will be investigated.