A simple, rapid method was developed for the simultaneous determination of 17food additives in drinks by ultra high performance liquid chromatography ( UPLC). MethodsAfter protein precipitation, the sample was diluted by water, separated on a Endeavorsil TM C₁₈ column (1.8μm×2.1mm×100mm) with ammonium acetate (0.02mol/L) / acetonitrile as the gradient eluent with a flow rate of 0.3ml/min at 30℃. Components were detected with a diode array detector at 215,0and 254nm, respectively. The quantification was performed by the external standard method. ResultsThe method showed good linearity for 17food additives with correlation coefficients (r) above 0.998. All target food additives could be separated within 10min. The UPLC method exhibited excellent linearity over the range of 0.025-25.0mg/L. The detection limit ranged from 0.00070to 0.0074mg /L. The limits of quantification was 0.0024 to 0.043mg/L. The average recoveries for 17food additives from spiked drinks were in the range of 86.4%-104.8% with relative standard deviations (RSDs) of 0.25%-9.6%. ConclusionThe analytical method is simple, accurate, sensitive and suitable for the determination of 17additives in drinks.