Objective To develop an analytical method for fast determination of banned pigment quinoline yellow in pastries by salting out assisted-high performance liquid chromatography.Methods The sample was extracted with 40% methanol-sodium chloride-water， precipitated with potassium ferrocyanide-zinc acetate solution， eluted with mobile phase of methanol-0.02 mol/L ammonium acetate solution， separated by X-Bridge C₁₈ column v（150 mm×4.6 mm， 3.5 μm）， and detected with diode -array detector by external standard method.Results The method showed good linearity （r>0.999） in the range of 0.4-40.0 μg/mL. The limit of detection （S/N=3） was 1.25 mg/kg and the limit of quantification （S/N=10） was 5.0 mg/kg. The average recoveries of three different concentrations level at 5.0， 10.0 and 50.0 mg/kg ranged from 89.18% to 110.10%， with relative standard deviation in the range of 2.83%-8.65%.Conclusion The method was convenient， accurate and reproducible， and it was suitable for qualitative and quantitative analysis of banned pigment quinoline yellow in pastries.