A simple, inexpensive and robust high-performance liquid chromatography diode array detector (HPC-DAD) procedures are proposed to analyse food dyes in beverages, hard candy and fish roe samples. An ether-linked phenyl stationary phase provides sufficient selectivity and chromatographic performance for separation of 11 sulfonated azo dyes. Beverage samples were only diluted (and degassed when needed) before analysis. Solidphase extraction (SPE) or matrix solid-phase dispersion (MSPD) procedures are proposed for efficient extraction of the analytes from candies or fish roe samples, respectively. Limits of detection (LODs) were from 0.005 to 0.013 μg mL −1 and limits of quantification (LOQs) between 0.014 and 0.038 μg mL −1. HPLC-DAD method was validated in terms of intra-and inter-day accuracy and precision at three concentration levels 2, 1, and 0.1 μg mL −1. Validation was also performed for SPE and MSPD extraction procedures including intra-and inter-day accuracy (Recovery %) and precision (RSD%), as well as intralaboratory reproducibility. Application to analysis of beverages and food samples available to consumers proved that described methods are suitable for the routine analysis of dyes in food products.