Sub-nanogram amount of benzo (a) pyrene (B (a) P) was determined in food stuffs by means of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a fluorescence detector. Food stuffs were extracted and cleaned up by conventional saponification and dimethylsulfoxide partition before subjecting to chromatography. A chromatographic condition was compromised for routine analysis by using octadecyl silate-silica gel micro beads as a support and acetonitrile + water (70 : 30) as a solvent at a flow rate of 2 ml/min. The best set of excitation and emission wavelengths for fluorometry was 384 and 406 nm, respectively. The method provided 0.01 ppb level of detection limit and a mean recovery (70%) with high reproducibility. Examination of Japanese food stuffs revealed that B (a) P was ubiquitously distributed in most of the stuffs and highly present in special food such as dried bonito. Benzo (k) fluoranthene, benzo (b) fluoranthene, benzo (e) pyrene and perylene were also analysed by HPLC with specific excitation and emission wavelengths.