The use of chemical preservative compounds is common in the food products industry. The caramel color is the most usual additive used in beverages, deserts and breads worldwide. During its fabrication process, 2- and 4- methylimidazole (MeI), highly carcinogenic compounds are generated. In these cases, the development of reliable analytical methods for the monitoring of undesirable compounds is necessary. The primary procedure for the analysis of 2- and 4-MeI is using LC or GC - MS techniques. This procedure is time-consuming, and requires large amount of organic solvents and several pretreatments steps. This prevents the use routine of this procedure. This paper describes a rapid, efficient, and simple method using capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the separation and determination of 2- and 4-MeI in caramel colors. The analyses were performed using a 75 μm i.d. uncoated fused-silica capillary with an effective length of 40 cm, and a running electrolyte consisting of 160 mmol L-1 phosphate plus 30% acetonitrile. The pH was adjusted to 2.5 with triethylamine. The analytes were separated within 6 minutes at a voltage of 20 kV. Method validation revealed good repeatability of both migration time (<0.8% RSD) and peak area (<2% RSD). Analytical curves for 2- and 4-MeI were linear in the 0.4-40 mg L-1 concentration interval. Detection limits were 0.16 mg L-1 for 4-MeI, and 0.22 mg L-1 for 2-MeI. The extraction recoveries were satisfactory. The developed method showed many advantages when compared to the previously-used method.