The article describes a method for extracting the natural biopolymer chitosan from shrimp shells in the laboratory. The food thickening properties of the resulting chitosan product were determined. Chitosan, a natural polysaccharide, due to its wide range of beneficial properties, is used in many fields such as food, medicine, agriculture, perfumes and cosmetics. The undoubted advantage of chitosan is its absolute safety for humans and the environment. It is environmentally friendly and completely decomposes under natural conditions. Today, synthetic polymers are gradually losing their attractiveness, and more and more attention is being paid to natural polymers. Chitin and chitosan are used in biomedicine, waste treatment, nanotechnology, organic and fortified food production, environmental protection, etc. It is widely used in industry. The main characteristics of chitosan, which play a key role for effective use in various fields, are insolubility in water, high viscosity of chitosan solutions in various non-concentrated acids, film-forming properties, and the possibility of forming granular products. , biocompatibility with human tissues and other organisms, low toxicity and biodegradation in soil. These properties depend on the chemical structure of the aminosaccharide molecules, that is, the distribution of its molecular weights, the degree of deacetylation, as well as the uniform distribution of deacetylated groups on all polymer molecules.