To keep informed on the actual situation of the use of food additives in China and carry out the risk assessment so as to amend the GB 2760 hygienic standard for use of food additives, Samples of foods and beverages were collected from 13 provinces and cities and examined for contents of 10 kinds of food additives. The results indicate that excessive use of food additives was a serious problem during that period. The average content of cyclamate in preserved prune was 11.56 g/kg. the content of cyclamate in 43.84% of the samples of preserved prune exceeded the national standard with the highest reached 49 g/kg, which was 6 times of the national standard. The problem of excessive use of acesulfame K in foods was less serious. But benzoic acid in the foods were very excessively added, especially in pickled vegetables. The content of benzoic acid in 44.59% of the samples exceeded the national standard, with the highest reached 13.3 g/kg. The situation of synthetic colors in foods was mild, but the problem of excessive use still existed in the production of soft drinks, juice beverages and jellies.