An Important Cheese in Turkish Cuisine: A Research on PGI-Registered Erzurum String Cheese

Abstract Cheese communicates the identity and culture of the regions where they are produced to consumers. This includes the origin of the milk used, pastures greened with aromatic herbs and natural scenery, cheese producers, traditional production methods, and consumption rituals. This vast structure is, in fact, closely related to cheese-focused tourism. In addition, the industrial property rights geographical indication (GI) provides quality assurance to consumers regarding the product it has registered and protected and offers economical, social, and environmental benefits to the region where production is made. The purpose of the current study is to reveal the importance of the GI-registered Erzurum string cheese, one of the essential tastes of Erzurum cuisine, to contribute to the importance of it in the local cuisine, to review the production stages according to the registration document and to develop recommendations for transferring it to future generations. Erzurum string cheese is a type of cheese produced in the Eastern Anatolia Region of Turkey. It was registered with the particular mark in 2009 and enjoyed nationwide.