Hexafluoroisopropanol(HFIP)-induced sodium dodecyl sulfate/dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide(SDS/DTAB) catanionic surfactant coacervate extraction method coupled with high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) was used to detect the migration of phthalates from disposable tablewares to drinking water. The concentration factors are larger than 82 and extraction recoveries over 53% for water samples spiked with 100 or 200 ng/m L phthalates. Limit of detection is in the range of 1.0–2.6 ng/m L.Good linearity with correlation coefficients larger than 0.9985 is obtained in the concentration of20–1500 or 40–3000 ng/m L. Relative recoveries are from 82.4% to 123.6% for water samples spiked with30/60, 250/500, and 1500/3000 ng/m L phthalates, respectively. Relative standard deviations(RSDs) are0.4%–7.4% for intraday precision(n = 5) and 0.6%–7.8% for interday precision(n = 3). Four of studied phthalates are found in the drinking water samples prepared from four kinds of tablewares. Hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) -induced sodium dodecyl sulfate / dodecyltrimethylammonium bromide (SDS / DTAB) catanionic surfactant coacervate extraction method coupled with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect the migration of phthalates from disposable tablewares to drinking water. Larger than 82 and extraction recoveries over 53% for water samples spiked with 100 or 200 ng / m L phthalates. Limit of detection is in the range of 1.0-2.6 ng / m L. Good linearity with correlation coefficients larger than 0.9985 is obtained in the concentration of 20-1500 or 40-3000 ng / m L. Relative recoveries are from 82.4% to 123.6% for water samples spiked with 30/60, 250/500, and 1500/3000 ng / m L phthalates, respectively. (RSDs) were 0.4% -7.4% for intraday precision (n = 5) and 0.6% -7.8% for interday precision (n = 3). Four of studied phthalates were found in the drinking water samples prepared from four kinds of tablewares .