Tarhana is known as a fermented cereal product made traditionally from wheat flour and yoghurt. As a novelty, kefir was used as substitute for yoghurt in tarhana production partially and completely to investigate the effects on fermentation activity, nutritional, sensory and rheological properties of tarhana. Addition of kefir increased the fermentation activity as raise in acidity values was observed compared to tarhana samples prepared with yoghurt. Regarding dry tarhana samples, the highest acidity degree, protein, ash and phenolic contents were detected in samples prepared with 100% kefir. Counts of LAB groups (M17 and MRS agar) of tarhana enriched with 100% kefir was higher than that of other tarhana samples during the fermentation period. Moreover, kefir affected the scores of sensory properties of tarhana soups. Tarhana soups prepared with kefir gave the highest scores for mouth feel, odour and consistency attributes. Tarhana soup prepared with 50% yoghurt and kefir showed the lowest viscosity probably due to synergistic effect on starch hydrolysis by bacterial population from both ingredients. These results suggest that replacement of yogurt with kefir in the formulation of Tarhana may enhance some properties of the soup.

Propionic acid bacteria (PAB) are responsible for characteristic properties of Mihaliç cheese, which is one of the prevalent traditional cheese produced in Turkey. Recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been reliable and rapid method for identifying bacterial isolates. The aim of this study was to evaluate the PAB profile of Mihaliç cheese by their identification by MALDI-TOF MS system. In this study, a total of 25 cheese samples were analyzed and 95 isolates were determined as probable PAB based on their morphological characteristics, gram staining, catalase activity and pigment production. All isolates were analyzed by MALDI-TOF MS and 21 of them were belong to PAB. Isolates were identified as Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. freudenreichii (57%), Propionibacterium freudenreichii ssp. shermanii (33%) and Propionibacterium thoenii (10%). This study indicates that the diversity of PAB found in Mihaliç cheese can be determined rapidly and economically by MALDI-TOF MS.

Ozone is generally used for preservation and disinfection in many different areas, especially in the food, chemical industry, and health sector due to decompose into oxygen and leave no residue. In this study, the impacts of ozone application on the microbiological of commercially produced broiler feeds were investigated. For this purpose, Aspergillus niger NRRL 326 was introduced into the starter, grower, and finisher diets. Then the effects of gaseous ozone application at different doses (0.9 and 5.6 g h−1) and durations (15 and 30 min) were investigated. A. niger and total mould-yeast numbers were decreased in the feed samples as a result of the ozone application and statistically, a significant difference was found (p < .05). In this study, ozone dose, duration, and their interactions were found to be effective on the decrease of mould-yeast counts in all treated broiler feeds. However, the effect of ozone was higher on pelleted form feeds (grower and finisher). It might be concluded that the disinfection properties of ozone can change according to the physical and chemical structure of feed material and the surface area which contact with ozone.