NeuGastro Current Issue

Since ancient times, meat has been a fundamental part of the human diet and continues to be so in many cultures. Despite variations in the amount and source of meat consumed across different countries and cultures, meat remains a primary component in most Western diets, often accompanied by vegetable side dishes. Additionally, meat is considered an important factor in Türkiye as part of gastronomic traditions, celebrations, and events. In addition to its biological content, the significant presence of sensory features in meat is among the reasons for consumer preference. Meat is an excellent food from a nutritional perspective, providing all essential amino acids and many vitamins (B vitamins, particularly B12) and minerals (such as zinc and iron). It supports muscle synthesis and maintenance in the body, which is important for both physical function and metabolic health. Meat also contains important biologically active compounds such as taurine, creatine, hydroxyproline, carnosine and anserine. Given the complex interplay of factors affecting meat consumption, this study aims to estimate and forecast meat consumption in Türkiye using machine learning algorithms. Data from 1990 to 2023, including Gross Domestic Product (GDP), meat production, meat prices, feed prices, agricultural GDP, population, imports, and exports, were analyzed using Random Forest, Gradient Boosting, Support Vector Machine, AdaBoost, Neural Network, and Linear Regression models. The results indicate that Gradient Boosting and AdaBoost algorithms provided the most accurate predictions, highlighting the importance of agricultural GDP, meat production, and population in forecasting meat consumption.

Turkish cuisine, which is one of the few cuisines of the world, takes its rightful place in the history of gastronomy with the flavours synthesised in different taste stops throughout history. From Central Asia to Anatolia, from nomadism to settlement, from religious and political structure to contact with different cultures, a series of variables played a role in the formation of the Turkish-Islamic civilisation's unique nutrition and culinary culture. In this process, in parallel with the expansion of the borders of the Ottoman Empire, food and beverage services gradually became institutionalised. The Matbah-ı Âmire established in Topkapı Palace, which was built after the conquest of Istanbul, and the kitchen books of the period of Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror are historical witnesses of the palace kitchen. In this context, historian and academician Prof. Dr. Özlem Kumrular's historical novel The Sultan's Kitchen is about the series of events that took place in 1574, in the last year of Sultan Selim II's reign, around four head chefs who were in charge of the Ottoman kitchen as an institutional structure. These four chefs, each of whom are unique personalities from different backgrounds and hometowns, compete to win the five thousand gold promised by the Sultan in return for their skills while presenting the dishes they have carefully cooked to the Sultan. The novel, whose general framework is based on the historical events of Selim II's reign, tells the story of the structure and functioning of the 16th century Matbah-ı Âmire, the delicious recipes special to the Sultan's table, and the great fire that destroyed the kitchen. In this study, Sultan's Kitchen, which is evaluated from a historicist perspective, will be analysed as a novel that brings the institutional functioning of the Ottoman culinary culture and the tables of the palace into the literature, thus reflecting the history of Turkish cuisine in the mirror of literature.

According to the data from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), the Gastronomy and Culinary Arts (GCA) department first began undergraduate-level education in Türkiye in 2003. Since then, the number of departments has increased each year. This increase in the number of departments has also led to a rise in the number of academic staff. However, no study has been conducted so far to investigate whether the increase in the number of academic staff has resulted in an increase in academic publications, which are a significant factor in academic performance. This study aims to measure the article performance of Gastronomy and Culinary Arts academics over the past five years (2019–2023). To collect data, academic.yok.gov.tr and the official websites of universities were used. As a result of the research, article data from 394 faculty members in 96 Gastronomy and Culinary Arts departments were gathered. The obtained article data were analyzed in four categories. The first category includes articles published in journals indexed by SCIE, ESCI, SSCI, AHCI, and Scopus; the second category includes articles published in journals indexed in international field indices; the third category covers articles published in journals indexed by TRDizin (Ulakbim); and the fourth category includes articles published in journals indexed by national field indices.As a result of the study, it was determined that GCA academics working at state universities published more articles compared to academics at foundation universities (p<0,05). Additionally, it was found that professors at state universities published more articles compared to other faculty members (p<0,05). At foundation universities, associate professors (Assoc. Prof. Dr.) were identified as the title with the highest number of publications compared to other academic titles (p<0,05). The most publications were made in journals indexed in international field indices, while the least were in journals indexed by national field indices. When examining the annual general publication productivity of GCA faculty members, it was observed that only 0.7% of academics working at state universities had not published any academic articles in the last five years. On the other hand, 12.9% of GCA academics working at foundation universities were found not to have published any academic articles during the same period.

The word lokma, which comes from the Arabic word lukme, means a piece of food taken into the mouth at once, amount of food swallowed at a time, and nutrients. In Sufism, on the other hand, lokma is not an element used in naming food or meal but it is called food or meal whose status has been raised and which has gained spiritual value. In Sufi training, food and food-related issues have been a significant part of the training system, and especially in Mevlevism, it has made it necessary for the kitchen to be the heart of training. Since it was accepted that many difficulties in dervish training were related to food, eating and, drinking were taken under control, and attention was drawn to this issue with the conceptualization of the halal lokma. The lokma that increases the enthusiasm and pleasure of worship in the soul of the disciple, encourages him to the other world, and leads him to the path of prophets and saints was described as a halal lokma; it was considered essential to reach maturity with lokma. In Mevlevî lodges, a kind of pilaf consisting of rice, meat, onion, chickpeas, coriander, and pistachios and cooked ceremoniously on Friday and sometimes Monday nights was called ‘Lokma’. A special cauldron was kept for cooking the lokma, the ingredients were prepared under the supervision of Kazancı Dede and the cooking of the pilaf was called lokma basmak. The expressions of Mevlevî Order, such as lokma etmek, meaning to eat, lokma salâ, meaning to invite to a meal, and lokma hak vere, meaning to have nothing to eat, were used. Our study aims to determine how the concept of lokma is discussed in Risâle-i Sipehsâlâr bi Menâkıb-ı Hazret-i Hüdâvendigâr written by Mecdeddin Ferîdûn bin Ahmed-i Sipehsâlâr, which is one of the most significant menakibnamas of the Mevlevi order and constitutes a source for later writings, and in Menâkıbü'l-ârifin, which was expanded by Ahmed Eflâkî, the disciple of Ulu Ârif Çelebi, based on Risâle-i Sipehsalar, and to suggest how the qualities of the foods that will be halal and at the same time be a lokma should be in these works.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of heat treatment and packaging techniques on the qualitative attributes of functionally enriched fresh pasta. Fresh pasta is a type of pasta with a moisture content of more than 24% and thus can be said to be perishable. Fresh pasta typically has an average shelf life of approximately five days. In order to cope with this, in this study various thermal treatments and packaging methods (ambient air packaged and modified atmosphere packaging) were used to prolong shelf life and maintain the quality of pasta. Heat treatment was conducted at 90°C for 60, 120 and 180 seconds. Heat-treated and non-treated fresh pasta samples were packaged both in air and in modified atmosphere packaging conditions. The study shows that the application of a nitrogen-carbon dioxide mixture as packaging media (50/50 N2/CO2) improved the retention of such sensory attributes as color and texture as opposed to air in which pasta degrades rapidly. L* values and phytic acid content of fresh pasta samples demonstrated a corresponding decrease with treatment time. Heat treatment did not affect the antioxidant activity and total phenolic content. Fresh pasta samples packaged with normal air deteriorated and became unconsumable in the first week of storage. Modified atmosphere packaging conditions allowed the samples to last much longer compared to air packaging. The best results were obtained for functionally enriched fresh pasta samples that were both thermally treated for 180 seconds and packaged with modified atmosphere conditions.