Mercury in food was determined by microwave oven digestion-hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry. The best condition of digestion was also studied. Furthermore, the way of doing digestion was compared to standard method with satisfactory results. The method is rapid and simple, and of good precision and high accuracy. The sensitivity is 0.43 microg/L. The detection limit is 0.35 microg/L. The relative standard deviation is 2.8% and the recovery is 93.5%-103.0%.