b-Cyclodextrin epichlorohydrin polymer (b-CDEP) is functionalized with 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) and its application for the determination of cobalt by a direct polymer phase spectrophotometry is proposed. Cobalt(II) ions are included/adsorbed by the synthesized polymer to form cobalt-PAN complex. The maximum absorbance of the complex in b-CDEP was 573 nm. The working range of the calibration graph was 0.04-0.36 mg/mL of cobalt. The interferences from copper, chromium, iron, manganese, nickel, cadmium, zinc, and molybdenum that form colored species with PAN in the polymer phase were investigated. The method was successfully applied to the determination of cobalt in food samples with satisfactory results and recoveries of 95.8-103.7%.