Effect of Continuous and Discontinuous Microwave-Assisted Heating on Starch-Derived Dietary Fiber Production

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments to Authors,

The manuscript "Effect of continuos and discontinuos microwave-assisted heating on starch-derived dietary fiber production" is suitable for publication in Molecules as part of the special issue “Modification of Starch -from Structure, through Functionalization to Special Applications”; however, it has to be improved in some aspects, considering the following general and specific comments.

General comments:

The authors mention in the title of the manuscript that they used a continuous and discontinuous treatment by means of heating with microwaves for the production of dietary fiber from a starch derivative; however, I consider it convenient to add information on the continuous and discontinuous processing of microwave heat treatment. This additional information is important to mention in the Introduction part along with studies that support why it would be interesting to carry out or compare continuous vs discontinuous treatment, and that in this way the additional information serves as a basis to argue the hypothesis or hypotheses of the research work done.

Specific comments:

Lines 91-93: The authors should indicate, What was the cause of the increase in the solubility of dextrins in relation to that reported in the scientific literature?

Lines 271-272: The authors indicate the irradiation conditions of continuous and discontinuous microwave heating in Table 5; however (and to clarify), it would be important to mention the total number of samples that were obtained through this treatment and if replications of these treatments were made, this to corroborate the reproducibility and reliability of the results obtained. Likewise, I consider it important for the authors to comment on why the microwave processing times and powers they used in this study were selected.

Lines 371-374: In relation to the statistical analysis performed, what was the statistical design used? Were the experiments conducted in a completely randomized analysis? Please clarify this.

Finally: Why did the authors not perform a tri-factorial analysis, in which the effects of the variables of the heating power of the microwave, the processing time, and the method of operation of the micro-wave could be observed (continuous and discontinuous) on the structural degradation of potato starch?

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article is an interesting one. the authors describe very well the results obtained and the methods used are complex and completely one. some minor remarks:

I consider that the introduction part is a too short one. It is length is as a subchapter of this manuscript. The authors must present in a more detailed way other similar results and to focus on the novelty of their study. also the authors say that all the determinations are made in triplicate. Or for color measurements the analysis must be made in at least 10 determinations from more sample parts. Only 3 determinations are not enough for this analysis. Also I am not convinced on dextrose equivalent of dextrins method. The use of Schoorl...method is very old and so ambiguous in my opinion. I am not sure that is very used now in scientific research  and that is a precise one.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf