The food bio-colours are gaining importance and have become the focus of attention of many scientists all over the world. The feasibility of corn meal as a substrate for production of food bio-colours by Monascus purpureus (MTCC 410) in solid state fermentation was investigated to optimize the fermentation conditions. The higher yield of red, orange and yellow bio-colours were 90.34, 46.59 and 33.52 OD Units/g dms achieved respectively with corn meal at optimized process parameters including 70% (w/v) initial moisture content, 0.2-0.3 mm particle size, pH 6, temperature 30°C, inoculation with 4% (spore suspension) of 6 days old and an incubation period of 9 days by utilization of glucose (3% w/w) and yeast extract (1% w/w) as a carbon and nitrogen source respectively. The enhanced yield of bio-colours indicated that corn meal has good potentiality to be used as a substrate for the production of food bio-colours through solid state fermentation.