Open AccessThe color selector is the quick food selection equipment integrating many high technologies such as optics, machine and electrics, and it is mainly used to separate heterochromous grains such as yellowing grains, mildew grains and impurities from rice, peanuts, melon seeds and sesames, and it is the important equipment to ensure the safety and quality of grains. In this article, the design principle and the composing parts of the CCD color selector are simply introduced. The color selector includes the main control system, the checking separation system, the vibration feed-in system and the optical system. The main control system mainly controls and manages various subsystems, and harmonizes exterior functional modules. The checking separation system mainly selects and eliminates the heterochromous grains checked by the optimal system. The vibration feed-in system is used to control the flux of materials. The optical system is mainly composed by the optical illumination system and the optical imaging system, and it is the core part of the color selector.