Abstract: Based on the fact that aqueous solution of water-soluble polymers can be separated into two phases upon addition of inorganic salt, pigments in fruit hard candy were transferred into the polymer phase, resulting in reduced interference, and quantitatively determined by single-wavelength or dual-wavelength spectrometry. The results showed that the linear ranges of cochineal, lemon yellow, fancy red, sunset yellow, and bright blue were 0.2－30, 0.2－40, 0.2－35, 0.2－30 μg/mL and 0.1－10 μg/mL, respectively, with correlation coefficient (R2) of larger than 0.997. This method needs only simple equipment and is easy to use, and accurate.

Key words: polythene glycol-4000, fruit hard candy, spectrometry, pigment