A new resonance light scattering (RLS) method for the rapid determination of trace lead in food, such as wheat flour, millet flour, corn grits, sweet potato powder, was developed based on the samples of lead, in slightly acidic medium and ascorbic acid environment, were formed with potassium iodide, hexadecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) into ion association complex. The results showed that lead had maximum resonance light scattering peak at 623.4 nm. A good liner relationship (r=0.997 8) was observed between lead concentration (in the range of 0.00~10.00 ng/mL) and relative scattered light intensity. The detection limit of lead was 0.07 ng/mL and the relative standard deviations (RSD) of precision for 5 replicate determinations were≤3.1%. The average recovery rates of lead in four kinds of food were 99.3%～100.5%. This new analytical method was simple, rapid, sensitive, and provides new determination technology of trace lead in food.