Cadmium (Cd) contamination has become a public health concern in recent decades. The aim of the present study was to assess the contribution of dietary Cd exposure and its health risk among Shenzhen adult residents using the Total Diet Study (TDS) approach. Cd was determined in 13 food groups using 276 individual samples by ICP-MS. The major food contributors to Cd exposure of Shenzhen adult residents were 'Vegetables' (32.6% of the total exposure), 'Rice and its products' (19.2% of the total exposure) and 'Fish, seafood and shellfish' (18.5% of the total exposure). The mean and the 95th percentile dietary exposure to Cd of Shenzhen adults were 9.9 and 13 μg kg bw month, respectively. The dietary exposures of all individual age-gender population subgroups were below the provisional tolerable monthly intake (PTMI = 25 μg kg bw month), so the health risk of Cd dietary exposure of Shenzhen adults is considered to be low, but still, cadmium pollution should be strictly controlled and monitored continuously due to an exceptionally long biological half-life of cadmium.