Abstract: In order to improve water- holding capacity of Penaeus vannamei during the frozen storage,the effects of several kinds of additives including sodium chloride,sodium tripolyphosphate and pyrophosphate on water-holding capacity of Penaeus vannamei with the gel water holding capacity( WHC),hardness,soaking growth rate,thawing growth rate and cooking loss rate were studied.On the basis of single factor,the complex water retaining agent was obtained by L9( 34) orthogonal experiment,the optimal concentrations of soaking solution of sodium chloride,sodium tripolyphosphate and pyrophosphate were 0.8%,2.2% and 1.2%. Compared with the untreated group,the thawing growth rate and WHC were improved respectively from- 2.17% to 9.96%,31.18% to 47.45%,cooking loss rate and hardness were respectively reduced from 16.79% to 4.04%,21.5 N to 14.0 N. In addition,sodium chloride had the largest impact on water- holding capacity followed by sodium tripolyphosphate and pyrophosphate.The complex water retaining agent can improve the water retention of shrimp effectively,so it can be used as low phosphorus retaining agent to put into production use for the practical value.