Abstract
Abstract Consumer food safety concerns are continually increasing in Turkey, with consumer demand for safer foods becoming an important challenge for the industry. Most traditional foods in Turkey are produced under different requirements, and food safety risk management and risk assessment are conducted primarily by the government. Based on risk assessment, safety regulations and standards for traditional foods (e.g. Turkish white cheese, doner, helva) have been established. In this paper, safety concerns surrounding the commercialization of traditional Turkish foods and related studies to identify and minimize potential hazards are discussed along with pathogen contamination in raw meat balls and aflatoxin in helva and white cheese. Based on this review, additional national risk analysis experts and related databases are urgently needed. In addition, the manufacturing processes for traditional foods need to be standardized and harmonized with international standards, such as CODEX.
Highlights
Local products are referred to as traditional products, the boundaries of a particular geographical area, which are linked to a particular region’s cultural traditions
Several studies reported the presence of various pathogens including Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Yersinia enterocolitica and Bacillus cereus in minced beef and spice samples collected from Turkish markets (Sancak et al, 1993; Guven et al, 1997; Sagun et al, 1997a; Uzunlu et al, 2002; Yücel et al, 2005; Kimiran-Erdem et al, 2014)
Coliform bacteria were detected at 77.38%, Escherichia coli at 22.02%, S. aureus at 23.80%, B. cereus at 38.69%, yeast and molds at 87.50% and sulfite-reducing anaerobe bacteria at 36.30% of stuffed mussel samples, respectively
Summary
Local products are referred to as traditional products, the boundaries of a particular geographical area, which are linked to a particular region’s cultural traditions. In Turkey, important challenge is that production of traditional foods should not be restricted to small amounts and certain regions. The rules determined by the scientific methods are issued in order to produce food products with regional and the traditional characters at best and safe way. Epidemiological data and scientific studies were collected and investigated in order to analyze the safety risk of some traditional foods in selling Turkey associated with microbiological contaminants. Traditional foods focused in this review were chosen by considering regarding research intensiveness. They include raw meat ball, doner kebab, midye dolma (stuffed mussel), kokorec, tahin helva and white cheese, all which may pose a public health risk will be reviewed
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