Paper Title
Identifying The Consumer Characteristics And Preferences Towards Traditional Cheese

Abstract
Customer needs and expectations are important drivers on food quality, processing and marketing. In order to stay competitive in the market producers should meet the expectations of consumers. In recent years, the linkages between diet and health have received increased public attention, especially in popular media. Hence, consumers prefer to pay more for traditional foods since they are considered as high quality and wholesome food since humans are more concerned in nutrition and healthy eating. Among these traditional foods dairy products, in particular cheese, represent the optimal source of highly bioavailable nutrients such as calcium, phosphorus, fat and proteins for human health. The promotion of traditional foods may be a tool for coping with modernization trends; and by understanding the consumer characteristics and behavior the consumption could be increased based on the degree of happiness, satisfaction, enjoyment, or utility that traditional cheeses provide. Therefore, this paper explores consumer preferences toward traditional cheeses in Bursa, Turkey. Keywords- Cheese, Consumer preference, Consumer characteristics