Complexing extraction was applied in the pretreatment of eight synthetic pigments such as tartrazine,new red,amaranth,ponceau 4R,sunset yellow,allura red,brilliant blue and erythrosine in candy with tri-n-octylamine(TNOA) as complexing agent and tetrachloromethane as diluent. Effects of operation conditions such as pH of working solution,kind of diluent,TNOA concentration and the strip solution composition on pretreatment efficiency were investigated.Results showed that when pH value of working solution was 6.0,the diluent was tetrachloromethane,TNOA concentration was 5% and the strip solution was ethanol-15% ammonium solution(1∶1,by volume),the recoveries of eight synthetic pigments were in the range of 90%-98%.The results indicated that the method showed the advantages of simplicity,rapidness,low solvent consumption and high recovery, and was suitable for the separation and extraction of synthetic pigments in candy.