Fish scale is a waste from the canning industry that is abundant in Zamboanga City, Philippine. In this study, the fish scale is converted into a high-value product of chitin through deproteination and demineralization. For deproteination, the concentration of sodium hydroxide and reaction time were varied at constant temperature of 80°C and sample-to-reagent ratio of 1:10. The deproteinized sample undergone demineralization setting concentration of hydrochloric acid and temperature constant while varying the sample-to-reagent ratio and reaction time. Results revealed a deproteination parameters of 4N NaOH, 1:10 sample-to-reagent ratio, 2 hrs reaction time at 80°C and demineralization parameters of 0.75 N HCl, 1:6 sample-to-reagent ratio, 72 hrs reaction time at room temperature produced 63.66(±0.12)% chitin. It is concluded that chitin was successfully extracted from sardine fish scales which is of high-value product in different industries.
