In order to improve the cut tobacco recovery efficiency of deposed cigarettes in its manufacturing department , the processing parameters of S400 tobacco recovery machine were optimized by using response surface methodology. The results indicated that belt conveyor speed, frequency of draught fan (I) and (II) were determined as the significant influencing factors for the tobacco recovery efficiency. The optimized parameters were improved as followed: belt conveyor frequency was 25 Hz; the draught fan (I) frequency was 53.4 Hz; the draught fan (II) frequency was 35 Hz. After improving, tobacco recovery efficiency was increased from 47.1% to 56.1%. Mereover no significant change on the long strands proportion of the recovered cut tobacco was found and a stable quality of it was obtained.