A simple spectrophotometric method has been developed for the determination of copper(II) by using N'-(1- (pyridin-2-yl)ethylidene)isonicotinohydrazide (ACPINH) as a sensitive and selective analytical reagent. It forms a greenish yellow colour metal-ligand (M-L) complex (1:2) at pH 6.0. The Cu(II)-ACPINH complex shows maximum absorbance (λmax) at 365 nm, while the ligand shows maximum absorbance at 284 nm. The method obeys Beer`s law in the concentration range of 0.0636 -0.636 μg L-1 with linear regression 0.99867. The molar absorptivity coefficient and Sandell`s sensitivity of the complex are found to be 10.52x104 L mol-1cm-1 and 0.01962 μg cm-2, respectively. Proposed method is successfully applied for the determination of Cu(II) in water and food samples collected in and around Kadapa. The experimental values are good agreement with the values obtained from AAS method.