Abstract Ina sua is a traditional salted fish product belongs to Teo Nila Sarua (TNS) community, Maluku, Indonesia. The first aim of this study is to find out the effect of salt concentration on protein content and bacteria number of cakalang fish (Katsuwonus pelamis) Ina sua. Three salt concentrations (10%, 20% & 30%) are used with incubation time of two weeks at 35° C. The second aim of this study is to find out the effect of incubation time on protein content and bacteria number of cakalang fish (Katsuwonus pelamis) Ina sua. Four incubation times (2, 3, 4, 5 weeks) at 35°C are used with salt concentration of 20%. For a control, protein content and bacteria number of fresh cakalang fish are analysed. The result shows that Ina sua with the highest protein content (30.7 %) and the lowest bacterial number (2.3 x 104 CFU/ml) is obtained from the use of 30% salt concentration. The value of pH decreases with increasing salt concentrations. The result also shows that Ina sua with the highest protein content (±30%) is obtained at incubation time of 3 and 4 weeks but for all incubation time used the numbers of bacteria are not significantly different (2.5 x 106 – 1.2 x 108 CFU/ml). The values of pH are not significantly different for all incubation time used.
Keywords Ina sua, Salted fish, Bacterial Number, Protein Content.