Assessment of estimated daily intake of nitrite by average consumption of processed foods in Korea

This study has been performed to estimate the average daily intake of nitrite used in Korea as a color fixative. The crude estimation of daily intake was calculated based on maximum permitted levels (MPL) and national food disappearance data in 1998. In order to refine estimated daily intake (EDI), daily food consumption nationwide National Health and Nutrition Survey in 1998 and the concentration of nitrite in their permitted foods were applied. The crude EDI of nitrite was 17.85 μg/kg bw/day, representing 25.5% of acceptable daily intake (ADI) assigned by JECFA. The refined average EDI for nitrite was 0.87 μg/kg bw/day, representing 1.25% of ADI. For average consumers of age–sex groups ranged from 0.2 to 4.8 μg/kg bw/day, representing 0.3%–6.9% of the ADI.