Abstract: To determine the nutrition and safety of Carassius auratus which have overrun in the United States and utilize them comprehensively, we analyzed the nutritional quality, taste nucleotide and key flavor substances before and after cooking. The results show that the mass fractions of water, ash, crude protein, crude fat and total carbohydrate in muscles of the samples were 78.55%, 0.92%, 16.6%, 2.63% and 0.49%, respectively. The contents of mineral elements were well-proportioned, and Pb and Hg contents met the food safety standards. The essential amino acid index was 92.98 and the first restricted amino acid was lysine. Twenty kinds of fatty acids were detected, and EPA and DHA contents were higher than those of normal freshwater fishes. After cooking, the content of taste nucleotides reduced slightly. Thirty-eight kinds of effective volatile in the fresh samples have been detected, and the essential flavor substances were nonanal, hexanal, n-octyl aldehyde, heptaldehyde, valeraldehyde, E-2-octenal, 1-octen-3-ol and 2-n-pentylfuran. A total of 52 effective volatile substances have been detected, among which the key flavor substances were mainly nonanal, hexanal, n-octyl aldehyde, heptaldehyde, valeraldehyde, E-2-octenal, (E,E)-2, 4-Dienal, decanal and 1-octene-3-alcohol.