Affiliation(s)
1. Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tunceli University, Tunceli 62100, Turkey
2. Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Usak University, Usak 64100, Turkey
ABSTRACT
Turkey is a country producing various kinds of cheese. Tomas cheese is a
kind of cheese that is still traditionally produced, and it is not widely-known. In this study, the characteristic
properties of Tomas cheese, a local product that is extensively consumed in the
city of Tunceli and its environs, have been examined. For this purpose, samples
from cheese varieties currently on sale in
the cities of Tunceli and Elazığ have been taken, and some of their physico-chemical and microbiological properties have
been determined. The results of physico-chemical
analysis showed that the average
moisture rate of the samples was 53.24%, average ash
rate 4.24%, average dry matter 46.76%, average acidity rate in terms of lactic
acid 1.08%, average salt rate 2.93%, average fat rate 17.66%, average fat-free
dry matter rate 25.56% and average pH value 4.67. The microbiological analysis
data showed that the average values for the total aerobic mesophyll bacteria (TAMB) was 7 log10 kob/g, 2.3 log10 kob/g for coliform, 4.6 log10 kob/g for yeast, 5.5 log10 kob/g for mold, 6.8 log10 kob/g for Lactococcus spp., and 6.1 log10 kob/g for Lactobacillus spp.. The results show the high variation among
samples, proving
that there has not been a standard
production procedure. It has been established that the hygienic condition of
the product changes according to the production process,
and the probability for cross contamination is high. A large number of studies
need to be carried out for this kind of traditional food items, due to lack of enough literature data in this paper.
KEYWORDS
Tomas/Serto (Dorak) cheese, traditional
food, physico-chemical
and microbiological properties.
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