Cyanide is considered to be one of the most toxic species in food while the existing detection methods involve complex operation and will produce toxicity to inspectors. In this study, a water-soluble fluorescent probe(C-GGH) was synthesized by HOBT/DIC protocol in solution using 7-diethylaminocoumarin-3-carboxylic acid, Glycine and Histidine. Due to the presence of the recognition unit GGH, the probe C-GGH can conjugated with Cu²⁺ to formed non-fluorescent C-GGH-Cu²⁺ complex. Due to the strong binding affinity of CN^- to Cu²⁺, CN^- can extract Cu²⁺ from C-GGH-Cu²⁺ complex, leading to the release of C-GGH and the recovery of fluorescent emission of the system. The probe allowed detection of cyanide in aqueous solution with a LOD (limit of detection) of 0.017 μmol/L which is much lower than the maximum contaminant level (0.385 μmol/L) for cyanide in mineral water set by national standard (GB 8537—2008). The probe also displayed excellent specificity for CN^- towards other anions, including F^-, Cl^-, Br^-, I^-, SCN^-, PO^3-₄, N^3-, NO^-3, AcO^-, SO^2-₄, and CO^2-₃. The method developed in this study received the same results as national standard method (GB/T 5009.48—2003, GB/T 5009.36—2003, GB/T 8538—2008), but more simple and quick in real sample detection.