To assess the potential risk of dietary exposure to sodium nitrite in Chinese population and provide scientific basis for food safety risk management. Methods Food consumption data combined with concentration of sodium nitrite in foods were employed for exposure assessment. The amount of sodium nitrite intake obtained in the present study was compared with the acceptable daily intake (ADI) established by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. ResultsThe average estimates of sodium nitrite dietary exposure of whole Chinese population was 0.021mg/kg BW/day (accounted for 30.0% of ADI), while high dietary exposures (e.g.97.5 th percentile) was 0.150mg/kg BW/day exceeding the ADI by 2.1times. The average estimates of dietary exposure of various gender-age groups didn’t exceed the ADI, while high dietary exposures were 0.1248-0.2750mg/kg BW/day exceeding the ADI by 1.8-3.9times. Satled vegetables and pickles were the main source of dietary sodium nitrite exposure(61.9% of the total intake.Conclusion The sodium nitrite dietary exposure of whole Chinese population was below the ADI. Sodium nitrite-containing food could be a risk for high consumption population (97.5th percentile). Changing dietary pattern and improving the food processing were important measures to reduce the sodium nitrite dietary exposure to in China.