SUMMARY
Incidence of food poisoning are still happening. Result of a study as reported by the Directorate General of Communicable Disease Control, Ministry of Health, indicated that the poisoning are frequently caused by sea fish especially tuna fish (Auxis thazard). That's why Health Ecology Research Centre has done another research to find a safe way how to cook sea fish especially tuna fish for safe consumption. This research was conducted from June 1997 until March 1998. The samples consisted of tuna fish (Auxis thazard) and kembung fish (Rastrelliger spp) bought from Fish Auction in Cilincing and Cilincing market. The fishes were carried in an ice box to be analized in the laboratory and prepared in different cooking methods: fresh steamedfish, fish cooked in coconut milk, fried fish and grilled fish. Measurement of histamine levels were done by the Mopper Method and observation of microflora for fungi and bacteria, to know wich way of cooking fish was related to the lowest histamine level. By analizing histamine level it was found that fresh steamed fish contained the lowest histamine (tuna 6,34 ppm, kembung 3,91 ppm),fish cooked in coconut milk (tuna 8,11 ppm, kembung 5,20 ppm), fried fish (tuna 14,86 ppm, kembung 13,18 ppm) and grilled fish (tuna 31,12 ppm, kembung 19,49 ppm). It has been proven that the histamine level of cooked fresh fish is less than 50 ppm (US Food and Drug Administration/FDAs, allowable concentration). The conclusion of this research : to cook fresh fish is the best and that fish must be handled carefully. The rotary histamin content was lowest in fresh steamed fish, followed by fish cooked in coconut milk, fried fish and grilled fish. The kinds of fungi found were : Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus ochraceus, Khamir and Rhizopus sp. In the cooked fish we did not find any pathogenic bacteria.