Modelling the Kinetics of Color and Texture Changes of Dabai (Canarium odontophyllum Miq.) during Blanching

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article is a research related the effect of different temperatures between 60 and 100℃ with an increment 10°C for up 15 to 10 minutes, of blanching on the degradation kinetics of color and texture of Dabai fruits.

This manuscript is interesting, and your results is quite meaningful.

However, before publication, the authors must review all comments below.

• Write the visual characteristics of the Dabai fruit in the introduction. What is your coloration? What pigments are present, for example anthocyanins?
• As the work investigates the effect of temperature on the color and texture of the Dabai fruit, characteristics that are directly related to its appearance, it is extremely important to add images of these fruits before and after the bleaching process in order to observe their appearance.
• In the images in Figure 1, 2 and 3, arrange the captions that are overlaying the chart. The y-axis title is overlaying the axis numbers, to arrange.
• Fix the numbering in “Figure 1” shown on page 7 to “Figure 3”.
• Lines 273-274: “The value of k for a* par”. What it means?
• Lines 215; 238; 268;269;284;287: Please correct sentence “Error! Reference source not found”.
• Page 11. Place figure number in sequence. Please correct sentence “Error! No text of specified style in document.”
• Lines 225-227. “This result agreement with Dini 225 et al. [16], where the roasting process of pistachio nuts resulted in changes of a* where it 226 gained redness and the kinetic constants (k) also increased as temperature increases using 227 the zero-order kinetic order.” Does this mean that the increase in temperature in the fruit whitening process led to an increase in a values, showing a tendency for reddish coloration? This increased red coloration is attributed to what? Are new products being formed, changing the chemical structure of the pigment? Is there an explanation?
• Lines 241 – 244. In Table 1, the result indicated the increasing trend of k as temperature increases at significantly different (p<0.05) of b* parameter in zero, first, and fractional conversion order where the value of R² is between 0.912-0.978, 0.916-243 0.984 and 0.841-0.980, respectively. Does this mean that the increase in temperature led to an increase in b values, showing a tendency to yellowish coloration? is it possible that degradation of the pigments present in fruit occurred with the increase in temperature? (For example, have anthocyanins been oxidized? changing the color to brown? It is known that anthocyanins are susceptible to degradation at high temperatures).
• From the temperatures studied for Dabai fruit whitening, can you conclude which temperature is the most suitable for preserving or improving the color and texture of the fruit to be served as a snack or accompaniment?

Author Response

Dear reviewer, 

Thank you for reviewing our manuscript. All the comments and suggestions has been considered and answered in the attachment (Provided in the list of comments and corrections - Refer to Reviewer 1)

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The ms. “Modelling the kinetics of colour and texture changes of Dabai (Canarium odontophyllum miq.) during blanching” (Ms. Ref. No. agronomy-1420314-v1) presents original research regarding the effects of blanching on the degradation kinetics of color and texture of Dabai fruits based on the Arrhenius equation, aiming at determining the optimal thermal treatment of fruits.

There is a lot of work involved and the ms. has evident merit.

The topic falls within the aims and scopes of the Agronomy journal (subject area = Food systems).

The ms. is adequately structured and carefully written and may be considered for publication after proper revision. However, there are some issues that need to be addressed to improve the presentation of the results.

Major issues:

1. The major drawback of the present work is that it completely disregards the influence of the blanching treatment on the fruit composition. Nothing is said about the proximate composition and the biologically active compounds of dabai fruits, neither in the Introduction, nor in the R&D section. Or, the texture and color change during thermal treatment is certainly dependent on the chemical constituents. Therefore, I recommend adding information on the characterization of the dabai fruits in terms of their chemical composition. Please carefully revise.
2. The Title is appropriate and reflects well the topic of the paper. However, Miq. Should be written with Capitalized first letter and not with Italics. Please revise.
3. In the Introduction: lines 31-32: It seems the phrase is missing predicate. Please revise.
4. The information on lines 40-41 seems not to agree with lines 52-53. Please revise for clarification.
5. Line 78: I suppose the authors should specify * value (a and b, I suppose). Please revise.
6. The paragraph on lines 67-88 should be extensively revised, to highlight the novelty and advances of the current study. In addition, the aim and hypothesis of the current research should be better pointed out. In the current form, there is not a clear delimitation between already published results and the methodology of the current research. Please revise.
7. In the M&M section: Another major drawback is that it seems that the fruits were frozen prior to thermal treatment. Or, it is known that the freeze-defrost process has an impact on the texture of any food system. The freezing pre-treatment is not mentioned and discussed in any part of the ms. In these circumstances, the title and the whole ms. are misleading, since the general idea is that the fruits are thermally processed in their raw state. Please clarify these aspects.
8. Section 2.2: In relationship with comment #7, nothing is said whether the fruits were immersed in water in a frozen state or after being defrost. Please revise.
9. Line 102: I do not understand the thermal treatment applied (e. blenched for up to 10 minutes with 2 minutes intervals). Heating for 2 minutes, pause, heating for another 2 minutes and so up to 10 minutes? How many samples were considered in each treatment? I suggest presenting the experimental design as a table, as a Supplementary material.
10. The R&D section should be revised line by line, as there are several formatting errors with negative impact on phrase understanding (I only could guess to which figures and tables the text refers to). I advise the authors to carefully check their manuscript once build, to make sure the revised version does not contain formatting errors.
11. In the current form, the information presented is purely mathematical, with no focus on the applicative aspects. The authors describe the kinetic models, and that’s all. Or, it is expected that the kinetics results eventually lead to recommendation for the optimal treatment of dabai fruits to achieve best color/texture quality. Please consider this.
12. The Conclusions section: In the current form, this section only summarizes the kinetic models. As recommended in comment #11, it is expected that the authors suggest the optimal thermal treatment of dabai fruits, based on the obtained kinetic results.

Minor issues:

1. Line 18: parameters.
2. Line 19: I suggest “significantly increased” instead of the current text.
3. Line 33: I suggest rephrasing as: … although it is not botanically related to the olive family.
4. Line 64: temperature.
5. Line 83: … depend ….. were described…
6. Line 86: substituted.
7. Line 101: samples.

Given the completed score sheet and the comments above, after careful evaluation, the paper “Modelling the kinetics of colour and texture changes of Dabai (Canarium odontophyllum miq.) during blanching” (Ms. Ref. No. agronomy-1420314-v1) needs Major Revision according to comments before being considered for publication in Agronomy journal.

Author Response

Dear reviewer, 

Thank you for reviewing our manuscript. All the comments and suggestions has been considered and answered in the attachment (Provided in the list of comments and corrections - Refer to Reviewer 2)

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf