The analytical performance of the newly proposed laser-based photoacoustic spectroscopy (LPAS) and colorimetric method for quantification of anthocyanin (E163) in commercially available hard boiled candies are compared to that of the spectrophotometry (SP). Both LPAS and colorimetry are direct methods that unlike SP do not require the extraction of the analyte or some additional sample treatment. Results indicate that LPAS and colorimetry are both suitable for quickly screening content of anthocyanin in hard boiled candies. The correlation between the two methods and spectrophotometry is linear with R² = 0.9989 for LPAS and R² = 0.9570 for colorimetry.