<p><em>Cilok </em>is one of the traditional food in Indonesia. <em>Cilok</em> is a popular treat among Indonesians due to its good taste and cheap price. To make it last longer, <em>cilok</em> is sometimes added with preservative. However, such attempt will endanger consumers if dangerous preservatives are used, such as formaldehyde and borax. Their usage in food preservation may negatively impact consumers’ health. The aim of this research was to develop an alternative, natural preservative for fish <em>cilok</em>. The preservative would be chitosan. The method used is an experiment that is by making a chitosan solution from the shrimp skin waste. In the experiment, chitosan was extracted from shrimp waste. A 1,5% chitosan concentrate was used. Its preservation potency was tested by giving three treatments towards fish <em>cilok</em>: fish <em>cilok</em> with 1,5% chitosan coating; fish <em>cilok</em> mixed with 1,5% chitosan solution and fish <em>cilok</em> without chitosan. The three treatments were observed and an organoleptic test was performed according to the preservation time in a room temperature on Day 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. The parameters tested during the experiment were taste, color, odor and texture of fish <em>cilok</em>. The research results showed that fish <em>cilok</em> coated with 1,5% chitosan solution lasted longer than fish <em>cilok</em> without or added with chitosan.</p><p><em> </em></p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: <em>chitosan</em>, <em>natural</em> <em>preservative</em>, <em>fish</em> <em>cilok</em></p>