The work aims to study the changes in the content of volatile components of head lettuce in carbon dioxide of different concentrations, and help to screen the characteristic components of head lettuce for warning of carbon dioxide damage. The head lettuce was stored in a dynamic controlled atmosphere, and the volatile components were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The experimental results showed that head lettuce stored at 0 ℃ and 3% oxygen was damaged in an environment of 6% (volume fraction) carbon dioxide and above. Under harmful and non-harmful conditions, chlorooctadecane, 4-propyl toluene, 4-ethyl toluene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, undecyl acetate, decyl butyrate, adipic acid mono Ethyl acetate, hexyl hexanoate, stilbene, and diallyl disulfide showed significantly different trends, and the changes in these components may be related to carbon dioxide damage. Tetradecane, undecyl acetate and hexyl butyrate show inflection point changes at the initial injury concentration, which can be used as candidate warning indicators for the occurrence of carbon dioxide injury in head lettuce.