To study the effects of different pretreatment methods for determination of chromium in food and gelatin hollow capsule. Methods Sample pretreatment was conducted by wet digestion, microwave digestion and dry ashing. The content of chromium in food and gelatin capsule was determined by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry. Results The results of the three methods for 4 kinds of standard material were in the range of the standard value. Statistical results of the three methods for 8 samples showed that there was no significant difference between wet digestion and microwave digestion (P>0.05), but there was significant difference between the dry ashing and the other two digestion methods (P<0.05).Conclusion The three methods could be used for the determination of chromium in foods. Wet digestion was suitable for any food matrix. Dry ashing had the advantages of simple operation and low blank value, but test result was lower than the other two methods. Microwave digestion had the advantages of fast, low blank value, less reagent consumption and good repeatability.