Comparison of Quality Characteristics of Smoked Duck Hams in Domestic Market

The objective of this study is aimed to compare the quality characteristics of smoked duck hams in the domestic market and find out the traits that make the product preferable to consumers. All 6 different groups of smoked duck hams were investigated based on the categories such as pH and color, proximate compositions, water holding capacity, shear force, TBARS, and sensory evaluation with panel participation. The pH of each smoked duck hams showed the range of 6.29 – 7.21 and the color values CIE L^* (lightness) showed the range of 47.63- 54.02, CIE a^*(redness) with the range of 11.79 – 15.21, and CIE b^* value(yellowness) with 7.85 – 9.05.  Among the comparison of proximate compositions, each category (moisture, fat, protein, ash contents) were relatively even among all 6 groups. Meanwhile, the range of water holding capacity was 30.14 – 37.20, shear force showed the range of 0.59 – 1.29(meat), and TBARS showed the range of 0.04 – 0.14. In sensory evaluation with panel participation, some samples showed significant difference in categories such as appearance, flavor and overall acceptability while tenderness and juiciness showed small difference among all 6 samples. In conclusion, these findings lead to indentification of traits which make the smoked duck ham product preferable to consumers.