A high performance liquid chromatographic(HPLC) method was developed for the determination of morphine，codeine,thebaine,papaverine and narcotine in three types of food including spices class,halogen soups and cooked food categories.The food samples were ultrasonically extracted with ethanol,and then separated on a C18 column(250 mm × 4.6 mm,0.5 μm) with methanol-0.01 mol?L-1 phosphate buffer as mobile phase at a flow rate of 1.0 mL?min-1.The UV wavelength was set at 250 nm.The result indicated that the standard curves of five alkaloids were linear in the range of 10-600 mg?L-1 with correlation coefficients not less than 0.999 6.The detection limits of five alkaloids were between 0.1 mg?kg-1and 0.6 mg?kg-1.The average recoveries of 5 alkaloids from three matrices at high and low spiked levels ranged from 88% to 108%,with relative standard deviations(RSD,n=6) ranged from 0.77%to 10.7%.The method was simple,sensitive,accurate and repeatable,and could be used for the determination of five alkaloids in food sample.