Objective To establish a method to derive the acceptable exposure levels of hazard from food contact materials， and assess the theoretical exposure levels and potential health risks of five metal elements released from stainless-steel products for food contact， so as to evaluate the suitability of the current National Standard of Food Safety in China.Methods The acceptable exposure levels of metal elements from stainless-steel products in China were determined in accordance with international allocation principles for acceptable exposure levels of chemical contaminants from drinking-water， metal elements from metal products， and contaminants from food contact materials， dietary exposure levels and toxicology data for the metal elements were also considered. The specific migration limits of lead， cadmium， arsenic， chromium， and nickel in the “National Standard of Food Safety： Metal Materials and Articles for Food Contact （GB 4806.9—2016）”， were used to theoretically estimate the exposure levels of the five metal elements， assuming that each person consumed 1 kg of food in stainless-steel products per day. The health risks of metal elements in stainless-steel products were assessed based on the derived acceptable exposure levels.Results Acceptable exposure levels for lead from stainless-steel products were 0.06 （children）， 0.13 μg/kg·BW （adults）， and those for cadmium， arsenic， chromium， and nickel were 0.08， 0.30， 60.00， and 2.40 μg/kg·BW， respectively. The theoretical exposure levels for lead from stainless-steel products for food contact were 2.50 （children） and 0.83 μg/kg·BW （adults） with margins of exposure of 0.02 （children） and 0.16 （adults）. Meanwhile for arsenic the theoretical exposure level was 0.67 μg/kg·BW， with an MOE of 0.45. Notably， for lead and arsenic the MOE were lower than 1. The theoretical exposure levels for cadmium， chromium， and nickel were 0.33， 33.33， and 8.33 μg/kg·BW， which were 400.12%， 55.56%， and 347.22% of the acceptable exposure levels， respectively.Conclusion Under the current standards in China， the health risk from the release of chromium was low， whereas the health risks from the release of cadmium， nickel， lead， and arsenic were relatively high. Notably， these standards are based on theoretical exposure rather than experimental data. Therefore， it is recommended that risk assessment be performed based on actual migration levels to provide a more accurate assessment of the health risks. This information could then be used to decide whether to revise the current standards （GB 4806.9—2016）.