¹Atatürk University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Food Engineering, TR-25100 Erzurum - TURKEY DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2017.18551 Pastırma is a traditional Turkish meat product which produced by using whole meat pieces obtained from water buffalo and beef carcasses. Although there are many studies on the general characteristics of the pastırma produced by using beef meat, the number of the studies on the pastırma produced from water buffalo meat is quite limited. In this study, different types of pastırma (sırt, bohça, kuşgömü, şekerpare and kürek) were made from water buffalo meat; and they were investigated in terms of physco-chemical, microbiological, sensorial and textural properties. There were no differences between pastırma types in terms of pH, redness (a*) value and the amount of non-protein nitrogenous substance (P>0.05). However, the lowest mean aw value (0.84±0.01) was determined in kuşgömü (P<0.05). Şekerpare showed the highest mean lightness (L*) value (P<0.05). While no significant difference was observed between the types of pastırma in terms of Micrococcus/ Staphylococcus count (P>0.05), the lowest count of lactic acid bacteria was found in kuşgömü (P<0.05). The highest mean odor score was determined in the sırt type of pastırma (P<0.05). Kuşgömü, which dries more quickly, also showed higher values in terms of firmness and chewiness compared to other types of pastırma (P<0.05). Furthermore, textural differences between the types of pastırma were observed more clearly with the principal component analysis (PCA) applied to textural properties. Keywords : Pastırma, Water buffalo meat, Lactic acid bacteria, Texture, Principal component analysis