Determination of sudan dyes (Sudan I, Sudan II, Sudan III and Sudan IV) in food samples has been developed by several and different methods. However, sample treatment continues being the most important problem to determine these compounds in real samples. A rapid, sensitive and selective method for the extraction, separation and quantification of sudan dyes in commercial food samples has been developed. The method is based on the combination of a supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) procedure, followed by the analysis of the extracted plug by capillary liquid chromatography (CLC) with diode array detection (DAD). The entire procedure was optimized for the extraction of the samples, separation and detection of the analytes. For the SFE, the effect of CO2 flow rate, extraction pressure, extraction temperature, equilibration and extraction time and methanol modifier content were studied. Linear responses in the range from 50 to 1000 ng mL(-1) with average relative standard deviation lower than 11.6, and detection limits ranging from 23.2 to 42.0 ng mL(-1) were obtained for the different sudan dyes. The recoveries were in the range of 91-109% for dyes powder samples. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.