Abstract: Influence of sodium nitrite addition on the nitrosamine formation in Harbin dry sausage and the blocking effect of VEon its formation were investigated in this study. The formation of nitrosodiethylamine (NDEA) , nitrosodibutylamine (NDBA) , nitrosopiperidine (NPIP) , nitroso-n-dipropylamine (NDPA) , and nitrodiphenylamine (NDph A) was promoted with increasing by sodium nitrite addition, especially, NDph A. The contents of various nitrosamines increased with the increasing addition of sodium nitrite (p<0.05) . The blocking effect of VEon the nitrosamine formation was detected when added into the dry sausages, and this effect was dependent on VE addition amount. The amount of nitrosamines reduced significantly with the increasing of VEaddition (p<0.05) .Additionally, VEaddition could also reduce thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) , peroxide value (POV) , and the value of volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) originated from protein degradation during fermentation.Positive and significant correlations were found between the concentration of NDEA, NPIP, NDPA, NDph A and TBARS, POV, TVB-N (p<0.05) . These results showed that the nitrosamines formation could be promoted by sodium nitrite addition, but could be blocked by VEaddition significantly. Meanwhile, VEcontributed to inhibition of lipid oxidation and quality improvement.