The freshness and quality indices of whiting (Merlangius merlangus) influenced by a large number of chemical volatile compounds, are here analyzed in order to select the most relevant compounds as predictors for these indices. The selection process was performed by means of recent statistical variable selection methods, namely robust model-free feature screening, based on quantile correlation and composite quantile correlation. On the one hand, compounds 2-Methyl-1-butanol, 3-Methyl-1-butanol, Ethanol, Trimethylamine, 3-Methyl butanal, 2-Methyl-1-propanol, Ethylacetate, 1-Butanol and 2,3-Butanedione were identified as major predictors for the freshness index and on the other hand, compounds 3-Methyl-1-butanol, 2-Methyl-1- butanol, Ethanol, 3-Methyl butanal, 3-Hydroxy-2-butanone, 1-Butanol, 2,3-Butane- dione, 3-Pentanol, 3-Pentanone and 2-Methyl-1-propanol were identified as major predictors for the quality index.