Investigation of sensory properties of cheese produced with toklubaşi herb addition

Since human beings need nutrition, they have benefited from the plants growing around them or the plants that can be grown. Regions often consumed the herbs they collected around them for intelligent nutrition without knowing their nutritional value. It is of great importance to increase the consumption of thousands of herbs grown in Turkey and to keep and know this consumption. Incorporating edible herbs into our tables more frequently and maintaining their sustainability is a point that should be taken into consideration for Turkish gastronomy. By introducing the nutritional benefits of toklubaşı herb, which is little known or known only in the region where it is grown, it was aimed to obtain a new and more productive product from these two products, including the production of cheese, which is the most consumed dairy product and protein source of toklubaşı herb by the public. In summary, in order to benefit from the nutritional values of the little-known toklubaşı herb, which constitutes an example of these possible edible stores, and to ensure sustainability, it was produced with cheese, a frequently consumed dairy product, and these analyzes were carried out. Within the scope of the study, cheese samples containing different toklubaşı herb and control cheese were produced and the sensory analysis values of these samples were stated. Evaluations were made regarding sensory properties such as distribution of cheese samples, color, smell, taste, softness and general. According to the results obtained, the sensory properties of cheese samples produced with toklubaşı herb were examined and compared. As a result of the evaluations made on appearance, color, smell, taste, softness and general acceptability parameters, it was determined that cheeses with different toklubaşı herb contents differed from the control cheese in some properties. In particular, it was determined that cheeses produced with toklubaşı herb gave positive results compared to control cheese in terms of taste and general acceptability. However, some samples were found to be similar to control cheese in terms of softness and color. The integration of edible herbs into traditional food production processes can be an important step in terms of sustainability and can contribute to food diversity and obtaining products with high nutritional value. In this context, the findings are thought to be important to increase Turkey's gastronomic richness and support sustainability principles in the food industry. The results of this study may shed light on similar future research and the development of innovative and nutritious alternatives to dairy products.