Today, it is not difficult to find good quality cheese in Turkey; it is almost impossible.
Because most of what is on the stalls is not cheese, but the product of an organized deception.
Here's the truth: many commercially available “cheese”, it's not made from milk.
Margarine, starch, bone meal and old returned cheeses are used. No milk. But there is a label, a name, a region.
This fraud is no longer a secret.
20 tons of margarine makes 45 tons of cheese. Without using a gram of milk. The dry substance of margarine is inflated with water, starch is added, returned cheeses are ground and put back on the market. And then they add “cheese” and they are fed to people.
Question:
Does this country really have so much milk?
No, it is not. If all cheeses were made from milk, Turkey would not have enough milk.
But nobody cares about that.
And here's what's even worse:
The perpetrators of this fraud are very conscious. They use the name of whichever cheese is famous. Erzincan tulum, Siverek cheese, Bergama tulum, Izmir tulum...
Different names, same content. They are all uniform, fraudulent, fake products.
But the real figures are obvious:
1 kilo of tulum cheese requires 10 kilos of milk.
Add to this labor, taxes and operating costs and the price is clear.
If a cheese is much below this price, know this: That cheese is not cheese.
Even natural white cheese requires at least 7 kilos of milk.
It is not the consumer who cannot make such a simple calculation; the real problem is the control mechanism that turns a blind eye.
In the past, these things were localized.
Today, it has spread from Afyon to Kayseri, from Konya to Sivas.
Because there are no measures. Because there is no punishment. Because even those caught continue on their way.
Do you know what's more painful?
You can see this even at home.
Put a piece of cheese in a glass bowl and pour vinegar over it.
Hold on.
If the water turns white, what you are eating is a product of chemistry that has been likened to cheese.
This is not just a food issue.
This is a matter of public health.
It is a matter of lies being put on the tables of children, the elderly, everyone.
And we're still “why do we get sick?” we ask.
The question is this:
How long will this fraud be ignored?