World population growth and accelerated lifestyles have encouraged humanity to develop new discoveries in the world of the food industry. The earth is more blue than a green planet which is why it is not surprising that most of the food for consumption comes from the sea. Unfortunately, all seafood in fresh form has a short shelf life. The paper describes the ways of consuming fishery products, spoiling and preserving them using preservatives. The division of preservatives into three groups is also presented: natural, animal and artificial. In each group, several examples of preservatives used for fishery products were described, and for each, the method of application and purpose were briefly stated. The use of preservatives has certain restrictions, and their permitted quantities are regulated by legal acts. The paper presents the legislative system of the Republic of Croatia and the European Union and the division of preservatives according to E-numbers.