This study was conducted to obtain basic data for developing a special salted mackerel. For this purpose, food quality characterization data on 11 kinds of salted commercial mackerels were gathered. Korean Industrial Standards (KSH 6029) stipulate that a salted mackerel should be less than $1.0{ imes}10^6;CFU/g$ in viable cells, negative for Escherichia coli, less than 50 mg% for volatile basic nitrogen (VBN) and less than 3% for salinity. Only one sample (code 10) among the 11 kinds of commercial salted mackerels is believed to posses acceptable limits according to KSH 6029. The others except code 2 and 4 showed less than 50 mg/kg in histamine content, a safe range for allergies. The peroxide values of 4, 5, 7, 10 and 11 in sample code were lower than 22 meq/kg, which were low compared to the other salted mackerels. The major fatty acids of all salted mackerels were 16:0 (13.2-22.1%), 18:1n-9 (11.7-23.1%), and 22:6n-3 (13.5-20.4%). The Hunter color values ranged from 31.1 to 51.0 (average 37.9) for lightness, from 0.6 to 8.1 (average 3.3) for redness, from -2.9 to 9.3 (average 5.8) for yellowness, and from 46.8 to 65.8 (average 59.5) for color difference. From these results, it was concluded that the code 10 is superior than the other salted mackerels. Thus, a new salted mackerel product should be superior or similar to the food quality characteristics of this sample.