Abstract: In order to improve the health level of traditional dry - cured ducks, dry - cured ducks were processed based on low salt and low nitrate.The typical properties, lipid oxidation and processing proteolysis of dry- cured duck were analyzed and determined. The results indicated that compared to the dry - cured ducks processed based on traditional processing technology ( salt content 14.37% ～10.61% and the amount of residual nitrite 1.77% ～ 0.78% ) , the salt content and the amount of residual nitrite of dry- cured ducks processed based on low salt and low nitrate reduced significantly which reduced to 6.47% ～4.52% and 0.38% ～0.16% respectively.The levels of lipid oxidation of dry-cured duck became more serious characterized by the increases in the TBARS value, peroxide value, carbonyl compounds and conjugated dienes during processing. Different levels of proteolysis appeared in each processing phase and the level of proteolysis increased with the processing. The activity of cathepsin and calpain was determined during the processing.