Abstract: Southwest cold highland is one of the main potato producing areas in China. In recent years, the potato industry has been developed rapidly, and the processed products have been increased continually. In this study,the ZT032 potatoes were selected as test materials, and citric acid, L-cysteine, sodium D-isoascorbate and calcium chloride were applied as color protecting agents. Subsequently, the single factor experiments and response surface methodology were employed to evaluate the composite ratios and color protection effects on fresh-cut potato chips, aiming to solve the browning problem of fresh-cut potatoes during preservation. Results showed that the compound color protectant presented superior inhibition effects on polyphenol oxidase activity compared with single color protectant. The optimal formulation of compound color protectant was determined as follows: citric acid of0.47%, L-cysteine of 0.28%, D-isoascorbate sodium of 0.05% and calcium chloride of 0.54%. Under these conditions, the inhibition rate on enzyme activity reached to 95.13%, and the color protection effects of fresh-cut potatoes were better.