The excessive salt and nitrite content are potential risk issues during pickled mustard production. Screening nitrite-reducing lactic acid bacteria （LAB） and evaluating the effect on the performance of fermented mustard are the effective strategies to improve the safety and quality of mustard. In this study， a serial of LAB strains were screened， of which Lactobacillus plantarum ZJ316， LZ227 and ZFM228 showed the best nitrite degrading ability with a degradation rate over 93%. All the three strains exhibited great acid producing ability in pickled mustard juice medium containing 4% NaCl. Lactobacillus plantarum ZJ316 produced acids faster than the other two strains， by which the pH of fermentation broth decreased to 4.10 and the titratable acidity reached 0.14%. GC-MS analysis found that Lactobacillus plantarum ZJ316 was able to produce alcohol and acid compounds during the fermentation process， which could offer excellent flavors to pickled mustard. The nitrite degrading rate of Lactobacillus plantarum ZJ316 in the pickled mustard juice medium is 95.23%， and the strain was tolerant to nitrite at the concentration of 0 to 3.60 mg/mL. In conclusion， the lactic acid bacterial strain ZJ316 has a potential to be used in food industry to develop fermented pickled mustard with great safety and nutritional values.