Abstract: In order to control the content of formaldehyde in water-based adhesive for cigarette,a continuous flow spectrophotometry for rapid determination of formaldehyde was developed on the basis of the fact that the absorption of the unstable orange compound developed by reacting formaldehyde with phloroglucinol in alkaline solution peaked at 474 nm. The results showed that:1)The RSD of the method was 1.30% and the recoveries of formaldehyde ranged from 92.75% to 102.54%. 2)The method was simple,fast and accurate,and could utilize the existing module for chlorine. It was suitable for the determination of formaldehyde in water-based adhesive for cigarette.