Background and objectives:  High concentration of preservatives in food may result in gastrointestinal disturbances whereby some patients suffering from asthma, rhinitis, or urticaria. The aim of this study is the introduction and optimization a new method for simultaneous determination of four preservatives (SB, PS, MP, PP) in foodstuff by high performance liquid chromatography.

Materials and methods: Important factors in extraction, separation and determination process were optimized using the one variable at a time method.  Figures of merit of the proposed method were evaluated. The amount of SB, PS, MP, PP in some food samples were determined using the proposed method.

Result: The results showed that the obtained chromatogram of extract was free of significant interferences. The preservatives recoveries ranged from 88% to 110 %. Concentration of SB, PS, MP and PP in the 20studied samples ranges between N.D-639.9, N.D -214.5, N.D -579.8 and N.D -30.5 mg kg^-1, respectively

 Conclusion: The performance and reliability of proposed method as a simple, efficient and fast method for determination of SB, PS, MP, PP in the food samples was demonstrated.