Meat Starter Culture Reduces Aspergillus parasiticus Production of Aflatoxins on Meat-Based and Salami Model Media

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This study investigated the effects of meat starter culture on the inhibition of the generation of Aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus parasiticus, which is of significance to guide the actual production. However, the manuscript still necessitates substantial changes to meet the publication requirements of this journal, especially in terms of the depth of content and the standardization of presentation. Detailed comments are as follows (not exhaustive).

1. What did CMA model simulate in the real scenario?

2. What concentration of the SC was added in this study? Why chose this dose? Did a pre-test of the concentration gradient or it’s the practical application concentration?

3. The Figure S1 should put into supplementary file rather than in the main text.

4. Should mention how many separate replicates were carried out for each assay and how many samples for each trial.

5. Why choose yeast extract as another experimental group to compare with SC? What is the YE exactly is?

6. The part 2.5.3. Method validation was missing.

7. Were these data obtained by just one experiment since the there was no error bar in figures (e.g. Fig 1, 2, 3, 5)?

8. All the figure quality should be improved since they are not only unclear but also not standard.

9. The positions of the asterisk in Fig 1 and Fig 3 were not aligned with the corresponding columnar results.

10. For the data in Table 1 and Table 2, the form of presentation needs to be marked. Mean±SD or SE?

Extensive editing of English language required.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript seems to me to be well planned and the experiments consistent with what we wanted to study. It is a topic of interest since food contamination by mycotoxins is a problem that remains current and without an effective solution today.

However, in my opinion, in the work I do not observe a clear innovation with respect to what has already been published, since the only thing that is observed are conclusions that have already been reached in other works using culture media in the laboratory. Microorganisms are not different from those used in other works.

A control with only the medium and Aflatoxin would be missing to see if the special culture conditions and the new medium used alone contribute to its degradation and interfere with the quantification.

Something is missing in point 2.5.3 Method validation, which appears blank to me.

Nothing is said about the products that can be generated from the FA due to biotransformation by the SC in the new culture medium, nor if these could in any case be toxic.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

1. Please remove the background grid from all the figures.

2. It's still confused that the asterisks indicate which group.

3. For the form of the statistically significant difference in Tables, it's should be indicated at the end of each data, e.g. mean ± SD ^a,*.

4. Some citations of the references are not appropriate, such as, In a study by [30], [33] showed that, etc.  Please check it follwing the author guide or refer to the published articles.

Can be understood.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Regarding the authors' comments to the previous questions, some clarifications:

- "Point 2: A control with only the medium and Aflatoxin would be missing to see if the special culture conditions and the new medium used alone contribute to its degradation and interfere with the quantification."

It is the medium only with the compound Aflatoxin, without any of the microorganisms under study. I understand that since the quantification curves have been made, there is enough of the toxin to be able to do a test to verify that under the conditions and medium used, the toxin is stable and the degradation observed in the incubation is only the responsibility of the microorganisms and not a chemical degradation.

- "Point 4: Nothing is said about the products that can be generated from the FA due to biotransformation by the SC in the new culture medium, nor if these could in any case be toxic."

Sorry, it's a writing error. I was referring to the degradation products of Aflatoxin. If it is decreasing in the medium, I understand that it is due to the biotransformation of the microorganisms present, both the fungus that produces it and the SC. Have any of the compounds obtained from this degradation of Aflatoxin been identified?

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf