The three-dimensional spectra of mixed solutions of allure red, sunset yellow and brilliant blue were obtained. Then the three synthetic food colors were determined by parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and alternating trilinear decomposition (ATLD) algorithms, respectively. The component number of model is three by core-consistency diagnostic. The average recoveries of allure red, sunset yellow and brilliant blue obtained by PARAFAC were 98.75%±8.9%, 97.22%±2.9% and 99.00%±2.9% and those by ATLD algorithm were 99.78%±5.9%, 92.52%±5.5% and 97.23%±5.8%, respectively. Results show that both of the algorithms can be used in direct and rapid determination of multi-components of mixtures. From further comparison, the PARAFAC is more stable and advantageous.