Evaluation of lor cheeses sold in Erzurum province in terms of various physicochemical properties and elemental composition

In the present study, 10 lor cheese samples sold in Erzurum Province were investigated for their physicochemical properties including total solids, fat, protein, ash, and pH analyses, as well as their elemental composition. It was revealed that the total solids, fat, protein, ash, and pH values of the lor cheese samples sold varied between 22.05-36.65 g/100g, 3.36-24.38 g/100g total solids, 14.75-21.88 g/100g, 1.40-5.91 g/100g, and 4.51-6.45, respectively. On the other hand, it was revealed that the Na, Mg, Ca, K, Al, Ni, As, Cd, Hg and Pb contents of the lor cheese samples varied between 1225.99-15877.35 mg/kg, 154.73-581.54 mg/kg, 702.15-3512.52 mg/kg, 963.82-71542.59 mg/kg, nd-24.90 mg/kg, nd-33.97 mg/kg, nd-0.02 mg/kg, nd-0.05 mg/kg, nd-0.03 mg/kg and 0.03-1.19 mg/kg, respectively. It was observed that all the lor cheese samples examined exceeded the safety limit in terms of different heavy metals.