A novel molecularly imprinted stir bar (MIP-SB) was developed with melamine (MA) as the template molecule in this study. The sorptive capacity of MIP-SB was nearly three times over that of non-imprinted stir bar (NIP-SB). The MIP-SB presented much better selectivity than NIP-SB when used to absorb MA and its analogues. An analytical method to determine MA in powdered milk was established by combining MIP-SB sorptive extraction with HPLC. The liner range was 0.0631-12.6 ng/mL with good correlation coefficient of 0.9983, and the limit of detection was 0.0127 ng/mL based on three times ratio of signal to noise. This method was successfully applied to the determination of MA in powdered milk with satisfactory results. The method built is simple and suitable for the determination of MA in milk products which is of great significance for quality control of milk products. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.