Abstract: A new method for the determination of iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc and manganese in food with high performance liquid chromatography by using 2-(2-quinolinylazo)- 5-diethylaminophenol (QADEAP) as chelating reagent was described. With methanol (contained 0.2% acetic acid) and pH 4.0 HAc-NaAc as buffer solution and gradient elution as mobile phase at a flow-rate of 0.5ml/min. The Iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc and manganese chelates of QADEAP could be separated on a Water Nova-Pak-C18 chromato graphic column (3.9×150mm) and monitored with photodiode array detector. The detection limit (S/N=3) was:iron 3.2(μg/L, cobalt 4.1μg/L, nickel 2.6μg/L, copper 4.4μg/L, zinc 5.0μg/L and manganese 8.0 μg/L. The relative standard deviations were 1.6%～3.5 %. The standard recoveries were 93%～107%. This method could be applied to the determination of iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc and manganese in food with satisfactory results.

Key words: HPLC, 2-(2-quinolinylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol , Transitional metal