Abstract: This paper studied the water keeping effect of sodium alginate, xanthan gum, glutamine transaminase and compound phosphate on frozen tilapia fillets frozen at -20益for 40 d based on the indexes of the yield of weight increasing after being soaked, drip loss, cooking loss, moisture content, water holding capacity and texture attributes. The results showed that the best concentration of 4 kinds of water retention agents were 0.7%, 0.7%, 0.6% and 2%. The result indicated that the use of water retaining agents could effectively decrease the cooking loss rate, increase moisture content and improve water holding capacity. So sodium alginate, xanthan gum, glutamine transaminase and compound phosphate can be developed into water holding additives instead of compound phosphate.