Most propionic acid is added to food (especially breads) as preservatives and its form is sodium or calcium salt. Most countries admitted propionic acid as food preservatives but a tolerance limit is somewhat different according to countries. Recoveries of the official method for propionates reported as 50.0~60.0%. Accordingly new rapid determination method for propionates was developed using formic acid added sodium chloride (5 g) and ether (formic acid : ether = 1 : 2) as the extraction solvent to improve the official method with the complex processes. Propionate was dissolved from the samples with formic acid omitting steam distillation and ion exchange procedure. Then propionate in formic acid was extracted with ether and sodium chloride again. A 1 μl aliquot of the filtrate of ether was analyzed by gas chromatograph. Recoveries from sample A and B fortified with propionic acid sodium salt were 85.0 % and 90.0 %, respectively.