Abstract: The phosphorus-containing water retaining agents may be harmful to the human body and produce negative effects on meat products, and screening of phosphorus-free additive to substitute phosphorus-containing water retaining agent is the trend for processing green and healthy meat products.The objectives of this study were to prepare yak meat batters with the addition of various levels of phosphorus additives, sodium alginate, trisodium citrate, or sodium lactate, to study their effects on water holding capacity, cooking loss, centrifugal weight loss and freeze-thawing loss, and their effects were compared with the addition of compound phosphate. It was suggested that all of the three added phosphorus-free additives could serve as the substitute of phosphate agent.1.20% trisodium citrate could significantly improve water holding capacity and made centrifugal weight loss at its lowest level.Besides centrifugal weight loss and freeze-thawing loss were both at its lowest level by addition of 0.20% sodium alginate citrate.Another phosphorus-free agent sodium lactate, when the agent of it was 0.20%, could increase water holding capacity by 4%, and decrease water losing, centrifugal weight loss and freeze-thawing loss by around 3%.0.30% compound phosphate had good abilities in improving water holding capacity and decreasing water losing.