Abstract: To better predict quality changes during heating process of food，the kinetic method was used to determine and analyze changes of mature quality factors（color and shear force）and overheating quality factors（moisture content）during cooking process of fish balls.Results showed that changes in brightness，whiteness and moisture content of fish balls during cooking and maturation process were in line with the first-order reaction kinetic model，while changes in shear force were in line with the zero-order reaction kinetic model.The z values of brightness value and whiteness value of fish balls were 19.37 and 33.43 ℃ respectively，and the Ea values were 119.99 and 69.52 kJ/mol respectively.Ea value of water content of overheating quality factor was 39.39 kJ/mol，and the z value was 59.11 ℃，which was greater than the z value of mature quality factor（brightness and whiteness）.Moreover，prerequisites for optimization of cooking operations were met，which proved that there was space for optimization in cooking process of fish balls.The basic data are provided for promoting industrial production of fish balls.