Objective This study aimed to assess the potential risk and influence factors of the dietary exposure of nitrite to the health of Yantai residents. Methods The content of nitrite in cooked meat products and demographic data were filtered based on Monte Carlo, and the cooked meat products consumption of residents derived from the China Health and Nutrition Survey household food inventory of Shandong collected in 2009. The hazard quotient (HQ) was used to estimate dietary exposure that was exposure daily intake (EDI) divided by the acceptable daily intake (ADI) established by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives. Results The residue content of nitrite in cooked meat products in Yantai market was between not detected (ND) to 130.00 mg/kg and the mean was 5.48 mg/kg with a Logistic distribution. The mean exposure daily intake of sodium nitrite in cooked meat products for 2-6,7-12,3-17,8-59 and ≥60 years old groups were 0.004 27,0.004 02,0.003 31,0.002 48,0.002 08 mg/kg BW, and the possibilities of HQ higher than 1 were 0.80%, 0.43%, 0.59%, 0.12%, 0.02%, respectively. The content of nitrite in cooker meat products was the most sensitive factor for HQ value with the contribution of 91.1%, and the contribution of consumption by body weight was 8.9%. The contributions of the nitrite content and the consumption by body weight were different between each group. The content of nitrite in cooked meat products was the main sensitive factor of the dietary exposure risk. Conclusion The nitrite dietary exposure of cooked meat products of Yantai population could lead chronic toxicity to health for 0.05% of all residents. Not only the residue content of sodium nitrite in cooked meat products, but also the daily intake was the main influence factors of the dietary exposure risk.