A pre-column derivatization-high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method has been developed for the determination of histamine in canned fish. The homogenated samples were ultrasonically extracted with perchloric acid aqueous solution, derivatized with dansyl chloride and diluted with acetonitrile to a desired volume. The samples were determined by HPLC with ultraviolet detector and quantified by external standard method. Adopting a C18 column with 1.8 microm stationary phase particles, the analysis time for each sample was smaller than 5 min with the flow rate of 0.3 mL/min. It can decrease the consumption of the mobile phase and save the cost. The linear range was 0.08-8.00 mg/L for histamine. The correlation coefficient was 0.999 98. The average recoveries of histamine at different concentration levels in spiked samples were greater than 96% and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were smaller than 2.5%. The quantitation limit was 5.00 mg/kg for histamine in canned fish by HPLC. The results indicated that this HPLC method is fast, sensitive, reproducible and practical for the routine analysis of histamine in canned fish.