Dietary benzo[a]pyrene (BaP) levels were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FLD) in various foods (e.g., snack, potato chip, bread, vegetable oil, meat, cereal, etc.) to estimate dietary intake levels of BaP for the assessment of BaP related-cancer risk in Koreans. Higher levels of BaP were detected in fried chicken (5.25-5.55 BaP microg/kg) and smoked dried beef (5.47 microg/kg) compared to relatively lower levels measured in sesame oil (0.36 microg/kg) and peanut (0.44 microg/kg). The BaP levels in nonmeat items were generally low in detection, but certain potato chip products showed levels up to 4.06 BaP microg/kg. In terms of chronic daily intake of BaP, fried chicken was shown to be the highest (70.09 ng/person/d) and perilla oil was the lowest (0.05 ng/person/d). The total daily intake of BaP due to the consumption of various food items investigated was estimated to be 124.55 ng/person/d, based on daily food consumption and the contaminant level of BaP. The dietary BaP-related cancer risk using carcinogenic potency factor of BaP as 7.3E + 0 (mg/kg/d)(-1) was assessed to be 1.52 x 10(-5). These data suggest that cancer risk due to dietary exposure to BaP is of concern in Koreans and needs to be reduced either by regulatory efforts or by modifying food manufacturing procedures.