Ali Samet Babaoğlu

CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions. Supporting Information Filename Description jsfa70390-sup-0001-FigureS1.docxWord 2007 document , 628.2 KB Figure S1.

1 Introduction Fruit molasses, known as “Pekmez” in Türkiye, is a traditionally produced and widely consumed food product in Anatolia, a region with a rich culinary heritage. Pekmez is typically produced by boiling and concentrating the juice extracted from various fresh or dried fruits such as grapes, figs, raisins, mulberries, apples, and sugar beets, using open vessels or vacuum systems.

1 INTRODUCTION Texture is the most important quality characteristic of meat. It determines consumer acceptance and the marketability of the final products. Texture quality is evaluated by consumers based on the sensory aspects of appearance, tenderness, and juiciness (Lee et al., 2014). Tenderness has been identified as the most important factor influencing consumer satisfaction.