Abstract: Objective: This study established a method based on high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with solid phase extraction for determining Sudan I～IV in food. Methods: The Sudan I～IV were extracted with N-hexane and purified with FLORISIL solid phase extraction from food, and separated on a C18 column with 5% water of acetonitrile solution as the mobile phase, and detected at 229 nm. Results: The calibration curves of Sudan I～IV show good linearity in the different ranges 0.625～2000 ng (R2=1), 2.5～2000 ng (R2=1), 5～2000 ng (R2=0.9989) and 5～2000 ng (R2=0.9990) respectively. The detection limits of Sudan I～IV are 1.88, 2.5, 6.25 and 10μg/kg, respectively. The standard recovery rates of Sudan I～IV are 100.76%, 100.20%, 99.86% and 100.09%, respectively. The paprica application of sample recovery rates are 102.14%, 103.69%, 96.36% and 101.93%, respectively. The capsicol application sample recovery rates are 97.03%, 100.81%, 94.53% and 99.31%, respectively. Conclusions: This method is simple, rapid, accurate, reliable and applicable for routine analysis.

Key words: HPLC, Sudan, determination