Abstract: In this study, gum arabic, guar gum and their combination were separately added to duck blood. Our aim was to investigate the effect of edible gums on the quality of duck blood curd. The textural properties, water-holding capacity and microstructure of duck blood curd were measured. The results showed that gum arabic and guar gum could extremely significantly improve the hardness, springiness, resilience and other textural properties as well as water-holding capacity of duck blood curd (P < 0.01). The effect of gum arabic on the gel properties was more significant, while the water-holding capacity was significantly enhanced by guar gum. We found a synergistic interaction between gum arabic and guar gum. Combined gums could improve the gel properties. The duck blood curd showed the best quality when 3.5 g/L gum arabic-guar gum mixture at a ratio of 7:3 was added; hardness, springiness and water-holding capacity of the product were 4 217.33 g, 0.88 and 66.97%, respectively. The microstructure showed that the addition of edible gums could produce duck blood curd with a continuous, homogeneous and dense network structure, resulting in significantly improved gel properties and water-holding capacity.

Key words: duck blood curd, combined edible gums, synergistic interaction, gel properties, water-holding capacity