Comparison cheese

Comparison of cheeses made from cow and sheep milk

The price per liter of sheep and goat milk is higher than cow milk’s. We can consider some reasons for that. Sheep and goat give milk only in spring and summer months. The daily milk ratio of them is highly lower than a cow’s. It is a merit requiring effort. It is harder to care them. For sheep and goat to produce milk, they should be made grass and stroll in pasturelands freely. Small cattle feed under organic conditions during grassing and since they feed with a great variety of grasses and plants, the quality and density of milk is higher than cow milk’s. Higher priced milk means higher unit prices for sheep or goat cheese. Care, expenses and labor of small cattle are more than those of cows.

Facilities make it easy to find and process cow milk. For these reasons, cow milk harmonizes better with fabricated dairy products in production of cheese.

So it means that cheeses made from cow milk and any kind of dairy products containing cow milk reach consumers more easily and cheaper than the products made from small cattle milk.

Real sheep cheese

Real cow cheese

Sheep milk is generally more suitable for making cheese. 30 years ago, it was possible to make real full-fat cheese, for example 18 kg cheese from 60 kg pure sheep milk in average by using only pure milk, natural yeast and salt in company with conventional methods. It is also possible to achieve the same quality even today. Environmental factors decrease the quality of milk. In order to produce the same quality cheese, it should contain more milk. Unfortunately, the number of companies making this quality cheese is very few. Since sheep and goat farming was more widespread in our country, it was easier to collect and process milk. However, today it is harder to find and process sheep and goat milk. Due to the difficulty, the price of sheep cheese is higher.

When examining the ingredients of most branded cheeses sold as sheep or goat cheese, the fact that the ratio of sheep or goat milk does not exceed five percent and the remaining part is from cow milk proves how sheep and goat milk is expensive, hard to find and valuable. Low cost of this kind of cheeses allows the price to move irrationally. What is to be remembered is that a product with high cost can never be sold cheaply.

It should also be mentioned that, Thrace is the region where the quality of milk is highest in Turkey. It is gratifying that financial incentives are started to be given in our country for sheep and goat farming and dairy products producers particularly covering Thrace and projects are developed and made widespread in this context.

When examining the cheese sales, it is a fact that cow cheese is consumed more than sheep cheese. Cow cheese is a product, brand diversity and tendency for competition of which is high in the market. That’s why the producer chooses to gain from demand in order to make profit from the product it sells.

However, due to the basic concepts such as product diversity, consumer unconsciousness, etc. many brands abuse cow cheese and products made from cow milk during production. For example, in order to make a box of high quality full fat cow cheese (changes depending on season), 120-150 kg milk should be used. Costs increase for cow cheese producers producing fabricated cow cheese under these circumstances. Considering milk prices and expenses, the earning of producer is very low in a box of cheese weighing 18 kg in average.

During production; considering the fees paid for materials used in basic ingredients, income-expenses, taxes paid to government, equipment expenses, cold storage room fees, marketing expenses and likewise per liter of milk and for labor, it is not easy at all to make and sell cheese. The cheese producers which are aware of this and are led by big national brands do many things to decrease the costs. Decreasing milk ratio and adding chemical foreign substances are the most important. If the purpose is only to make a profit, instead of producing cheese for the producer, additives, milk powder, coloring agents, etc. are included in the cheese. You can have a look at the “ingredients” section of the cheese you buy. Everything is clear. It has been found that the whole of these substances threaten human health in the long term.

Cheese that a body needs

Why should we derive protein and energy needed daily from 4 kg cheese while it is possible to derive the same from 1 kg cheese?

When we eat cheese with additives, we are destitute of matters necessary for the body, such as protein and energy derived from natural products. Concerning the lack of nutrition and health problems, the consumer is pushed to so-called “cheaper production” under the influence of the product advertisings. When calculating the price per kg of various cheeses in small packages advertised, it is surprisingly found that their price is the same or higher than the price of luxurious cheese that is high quality and expensive. Real cheese has real quality. Whatever the type is, the ingredients of real cheese contain; pure milk, rennet and salt.

Real cheese should not be put up for sale before six months in order for the cheese to be removed from microorganisms and to reach its aromatic taste (good taste of cheese). But this time period has been decreased by government upon requests of big dairy producers unfortunately. It means the law has been amended because waiting causes waste of time and money for producers. The product, the milk content of which is lacking has a low nutrition level and may lead to a disease called “drusella” and transmitted to humans by animals through raw milk because it is not held in cold rooms for the required time period. In this context, it is also undesirable to continuously consume commercially available “fresh cheese”. Producers cannot give any guarantees to consumers for the cheeses eaten unconsciously in terms of our heath. The government and non-governmental organizations have important roles. In this context, the awareness of consumers should be raised and they should be pushed to look at the ingredients of the product they consume and to consume high quality dairy products. Health is a path of no return.

When we look at the world or Europe today, it is a fact that the prices of dairy products are higher compared to our country. However it should be considered that individual rights and producers and consumers are protected by laws there. The number of producers which duly produce dairy products is very few in our country. As "Gürel Peynircilik" , it is our main policy to maintain production of dairy products, which has been our family job for a century, rather than financial worries present in the market.