A method of gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) was developed for the simultaneous determination of 20 pyrethroid residues in vegetable foods. The samples were extracted by acetone-n-hexane (1:1, v/v), cleaned up by activated charcoal column and quantified by external standard method. The correlation coefficients (r2) of all the 20 pyrethroid pesticides in the range of 0.005-1.0 mg/L were not less than 0.990. The limits of detection (LODs) were 2.0 μ g/kg when signal/noise (S/N) > 3. The limits of quantification (LOQs) were 5.0 μ g/kg (S/N > 10). For recovery test, there were three levels (low, medium and high) spiked in 11 matrices. The average recoveries of the method were 75.2%-107% and the relative standard deviations (RSDs, n=6) were 3.08%-12.1%. The results demonstrated that the method is simple and has specific pretreatment steps. The method is suitable for the screening and confirmation of the 20 pyrethroid pesticides in vegetable foods.