The determination of synthetic phenolic antioxidants （SPAs） including propyl gallate （PG）, tertiary butyl hydroquinone （TI3HQ）, butylated hydroxyanisole （BHA） and butylated hydroxytoluene （BHT） in food items is reported using high performance liquid chromatography （HPLC）. A Cls column is used as the stationary phase, acetonltrile and water：Acetic acid （1%） is used as the mobile phase of gradient elution and the UV detec- tor is set at 280 nm. Under the above conditions, four antioxidents is completely separated within 8 rain. The limit of detection, linear range, and reproducibility of HPLC are evaluated. Isolation parameters of SPAs from different types of food items （cooking oil, margarine and butter, and cheese） are optimized. SPAs are extracted from food items through extraction with methanol/acetonitrile （1 ： 1, in volume）, vortex, ultrasonic treatment and precipitation in a freezer （2 h）. For cooking oil margarine, butter and cheese at 50 and 200 rag/L, recoveries of SPAs are 93.3%0--108.3% （PG）, 85.3~^--108.3~~ （TBHQ）, 96.7~^--101.2~/6 （BHA）, and 73.9^-- 94.6% （BHT）. The method is applied to the determination of SPAs in 38 food items （16 cooking oils, 8 mar- garine, 6 butter and 6 cheese samples）. The levels of SPAs in positive samples are all below the legal limits of China.
