Objective To address the problems of low trajectory tracking accuracy, delayed dynamic response, poor adaptability to external disturbances, and difficulty in meeting the requirements of high-speed and high-precision food sorting in existing end control of parallel food sorting robots.Methods A food sorting system based on a DELTA parallel robot was developed, and an end-effector control strategy integrating an improved whale optimization algorithm, adaptive fuzzy control, and nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control was designed. Adaptive fuzzy control was used to adjust the output gain in real time to enhance controller tracking accuracy. The improved whale optimization algorithm was employed to optimize the search strategy and globally optimize key sliding mode surface parameters of the controller, addressing the problems of slow response and poor dynamic performance caused by traditional manual parameter tuning. By combining the finite-time convergence characteristics of nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control, the system's disturbance rejection capability was further enhanced. Comparative experiments were conducted on an experimental platform to verify the superiority of the proposed control method.Results Compared with existing control methods, the proposed multi-algorithm fusion control method reduced trajectory tracking error by more than 40% and shortened running time by more than 30%. In practical sorting tests, at conveying speeds of 100 and 200 mm/s, the sorting success rates reached 99.70% and 98.70%, respectively, representing an improvement of 4.30%~12.50% over existing methods. The anti-disturbance robustness was significantly better than that of the comparison methods.Conclusion The proposed multi-algorithm fusion control method can effectively solve the problems of low end-effector control accuracy, slow response, and weak disturbance rejection in parallel food sorting robots, significantly improving dynamic response performance and sorting efficiency, and meeting the requirements of high-speed, high-precision, and high-stability operations in the food sorting industry.