Authors describe the major volatile compounds in meat, pork, fish, and derivatives; they discuss the contribution of lipids and proteins, and the effects of Maillard reaction and of cooking and dry-curing process in the presence of flavor and off-flavor in the food of animal origin. In order to determine volatile components and to evaluate the freshness and presence of contaminants in the food of animal origin (FAO), the authors explore the vapor distillation techniques, the simultaneous distillation extraction (SDE), and other distillation methods; they study the optimization steps as well as the results of the application of static (SHS) and dynamic (DHS) headspace and the solid-phase microextraction (SPME); finally, they report some technological innovations (type of fiber coating, direct extraction device (DED), nitrogen purge and steam distillation (NPSD)) in this field. In particular, the authors list some applications of distillation and headspace techniques for determination of volatile components in meat and fish products to underline the scientific interest in this field, and to indicate that the implementation of successful methods is of high competitive value for the food safety. In conclusion they compare the performance of different techniques to evaluate the limits and potential of each, and the precision and accuracy of different instrumentations for the determination of volatile components in food of animal origin.