To develop a new method for the determination of sucralose in foods by capillary zone electrophoresis with indirect ultraviolet detection.Methods Samples were extracted with ultrapure water and then centrifuged. The separation was carried out using an uncoated fused-silica capillary. The separation buffer consisted of 3 mmol/L 3,5-dinitrobenzoic acid, 10 mmol/L sodium phosphate, 12 mmol/L sodium hydroxide (pH=12.58) and 0.5 mmol/L hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide. The separation voltage was -20 kV and the detection wavelength was 200 nm. Quantification was made by external calibration between the corrected peak areas and the concentrations of sucralose.Results The limit of detection and limit of quantitation were 10 and 30 mg/L, respectively. The linear range between the corrected peak area and the concentration was from 30 to 300 mg/L with a correlation coefficient of 0.999 1. The average spiked recoveries of five replicates at three levels (40,0 and 80 mg/L) were 108.1%, 102.6% and 103.5% with relative standard deviations of 1.3%, 1.3% and 1.0%, respectively. The precision of the method was 2.0%.Conclusion The method is simple with minimal sample and reagent consumption. The analysis could be completed within 20 min (6 min for rinsing and 14 min for separation). Sucralose could be baseline separated from sucrose with similar structure. Five kinds of food samples (a total of eight) were analyzed by the current method. No sample was found to exceed the permitted level.