Objective  To examine the intake of cooking oil and salt among day students and boarders aged 12 − 17 years in China in 2016 – 2017 for providing evidence to the development of effective measures on reducing cooking oil and salt intake in the students.

  Methods  The data on 3 492 day students and 3 773 boarders aged 12 − 17 years were extracted from China National Nutrition and Health Survey conducted during 2016 – 2017 at 275 surveillance sites selected with multistage stratified random sampling in 31 provincial-level administrative divisions. Three-day consecutive weighing of household or school canteen cooking oil and salt use were adopted to measure the participants′ cooking oil and salt intake.

  Results  The median of cooking oil intake was 31.1 grams/day (g/d) for the day students and 30.6 g/d for the boarders and there was no significant difference between the medians of the two student groups (P > 0.05); but there were significant gender and residential region (urban-rural, north-south, east-middle-west) differences in the median of cooking oil intake for both day students and boarders (P < 0.01 for all). The percentages of the day students and boarders with the intake of cooking oil exceeding 30 g/d (being recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents – 2022) were 52.4% and 51.9% ,respectively, without significant difference (P > 0.05). The median of table salt intake of the day students and boarders were 6.5 g/d and 6.6 g/d and there was no significant difference between the medians of the two student groups (P > 0.05); but there were significant gender and residential region (north-south, east-middle-west) differences in the median of table salt intake for both day students and boarders（all P < 0.05) and there was urban-rural difference in the median for the boarders (P < 0.01). The percentages of the day students and boarders with the intake of table salt exceeding 5 g/d (being recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents – 2022) were 65.6% and 67.1% ,respectively, without significant difference (P > 0.05).

  Conclusion  There were no significant differences in the medians of daily intake of cooking oil and table salt between the day students and boarders aged 12 – 17 years in China and more than 50% of the day students and boarders had the cooking oil and table salt intake exceeding the amount recommended in national dietary guidelines.