This paper investigated the feasibility of detecting Sudan Red in foods with thin layer chromatography, and compared the result of Sudan Red separation with high-effect silica gel G plates (HPSGG) and the result of it with polyamide plates. It is found that HPSGG has more advantages over polyamide plates in separating Sudan Red. HPSGG gives high detection sensitivity, up to 0.3mg/ kg, fast analysis and clear separation. Polyamide plates needs 40minutes while high-effect silica gel G plates needs only 5～10minutes. The Sudan pigments and other interference pigments such as pepper pigments,can be completely separated. The method can be applied to rapidly detect Sudan Red illegally added in foods such as chilli products and hamburgers.