In order to study the migration of metal elements Al and Mg into acidic foods in coated paper cups and the effectiveness of mathematical simulation software to simulate migration, eight kinds of coated paper cup samples were digested by wet digestion, and then inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-OES)was used to detect the initial contents of aluminum (Al) and magnesium (Mg) in eight kinds of coated paper cups and their migration into acidic food simulants (3% acetic acid solution). The initial contents of Al and Mg in 8 paper cups were 841.6～3 482.0 and 179.1～19 720.1 mg/kg, respectively. Under the migration condi-tions of 40 ℃/ 12 h, the migration of metal elements Al and Mg into 3% acetic acid solution in the 8 samples was 0.077～0.212 and 0.065～0.862 mg/kg, and at 70 ℃/8 h, the migration of metal elements Al and Mg into 3% acetic acid solution was 0.074～0.180 and 0.064～2.209 mg/kg, respectively. The thickness of the LDPE layer, the migration temperature and time, and the thickness and density of the paper can also affect the migration of the two metal elements. Using the migration simulation software AKTS-SML, simulation of Al and Mg migration were carried out. Piringer model was used to calculate the diffusion coefficients. The partition coefficient between paper and low density polyethylene (LDPE) was set to 1 000, The partition coefficient between LDPE and food simulants (3% acetic acid) was set to 1, the migration of metal elements Al and Mg simulated at 40 ℃/12 h were 0.760～3.075 and 0.162～17.750 mg/kg respectively; the migration simulation results at 70 ℃/8 h were 0.757～3.059 and 0.161～17.660 mg/kg, the migration results simulated by the software are higher than those obtained by the experiment, migration simulation software can simulate the migration of metal elements Al and Mg to some extent.