The current work introduced a novel electrochemical sensor (screen-printed graphite electrode (SPGE) modified with MnO nanorods anchored graphene oxide nanocomposite (MnO NRs/GO) for sensitive determination of sunset yellow. The characterization of MnO NRs/GO nanocomposite synthesized through a simple hydrothermal approach was determined employing varied analytical equipment like Field emission-scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Chronoamperometric measurements, differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) were recruited to recognize the electrochemical oxidation of sunset yellow on the MnO NRs/GO/SPGE. The results of CV proved that the as-synthesized MnO NRs/GO nanocomposite has a good electrocatalytic activity toward sunset yellow. The MnO NRs/GO/SPGE electrode under optimized conditions using the DPV possessed a linear response for different concentrations of sunset yellow (between 0.01 and 115.0 μM) with a low limit of detection (LOD) (0.008 μM). Finally, the impressive applicability of this sensor was confirmed via real sample analysis with excellent recoveries (between 97.3 and 104.6%).