Investigation of milk origin in sheep and goat cheese with Real-Time PCR

Milk and dairy products are very important in life, because they contain important nutrients for human health. Recently, some producers have used cow's milk instead of goat and sheep's milk for producing goat and sheep cheese and sell these cheeses as sheep and goat cheese. In this study, it was aimed to determine the milk type of white cheese and tulum cheese, which are sold under the names of sheep cheese and goat cheese in the markets and supermarkets of Afyonkarahisar and Antalya. In this study, the Real-Time PCR analysis method was utilised to detect fraud in products. For the analysis, 60 goat cheese samples and 60 sheep cheese samples in total were collected from the aforementioned provinces. As a result of the analysis, among all goat cheese samples which were obtained from both provinces, only 20% were produced from goat milk, 38.33% were produced from goat-cow's milk mixtures, and 41.67% were produced using cow's milk only. In the sheep cheese samples from both provinces, only 18.33% were produced from sheep's milk, 50.00% were produced from sheep's-cow's milk mixtures, and 31.67% were produced from cow's milk only. Consequently, regular inspections and controls are required to detect counterfeit cheeses and we recommend that consumers be made aware of these cheats.