In this work, a simple and low‐cost method was developed for the simultaneous determination of the antioxidants tert‐butylhydroquinone (TBHQ) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) in the presence of the cationic surfactant CPB by square wave voltammetry (SWV) technique using a carbon black paste electrode (CBPE). The performance of the method was investigated by varying parameters such as pH, electrolyte, and type and concentration of surfactant. Under the optimum conditions of 0.2 mol L−1 phosphate buffer (pH 7.0), 600.0 μmol L−1 of cetylpyridinium bromide surfactant and SWV operating parameters optimized through the Doehlert matrix, the method presented low limits of quantification for TBHQ and BHA (0.23 and 0.26 μmol L−1, respectively) and high precision in successive measurements. The proposed method was applied in mayonnaise, margarine and biodiesel and the accuracy of method was checked by the HPLC technique.