The first harmonised total diet study in Portugal: Nitrate occurrence and exposure assessment

•Baseline mean nitrate exposure of Portuguese population was 1.17 mg/kg bw/day.•Population’s 95 percentile nitrate exposure did not exceed the ADI.•Main contributors to nitrate exposure were lettuce (28%) and vegetable soup (13%).•Processed meat contributed to 0.86% of Portuguese population mean nitrate exposure.•The study was performed using the TDS-Exposure project harmonised methodology.