Abstract: Electronic nose was used for the analysis of flavor constituents in crab paste at different fermentation stages (0, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 d).The results showed that the main flavor compounds of crab paste were inorganic sulfides, organic sulfides and methyls. The concentration of flavor compounds of uncooked crab paste gradually decreased with the fermentation process while the after cooking one gradually increased. The results of loading analysis, principal component analysis and linear discriminant analysis showed that different fermentation time had a significant effect on the flavor of crab paste. Electronic nose system could well distinguish crab paste samples from different stages of fermentation. Therefore, the electronic nose system could be used as a non-destructive testing and analysis of the fermentation degree of crab paste, which is of great significance for quality control in actual production.