Rapid Nondestructive Postharvest Potato Freshness and Cultivar Discrimination Assessment
, Konstantinos Ntouros 2,3, Athanasios Gertsis 4, Dimitrios Moshou 5 and Anastasios S. Siomos 1Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In the manuscript titled “Rapid nondestructive postharvest potato freshness and cultivar discrimination assessment” the authors conducted an experimental study in order to determine which non-destructive method coupled with different chemometric techniques could be use in order to evaluate potatoes postharvest freshness and to classify the tubers according to their genotype. The proposed approach can thus be applied in the on-line applications designed for the industry laboratories to overcome the limitations and uncertainties related to the quality assessment; therefore, the manuscript is acceptable with minor revision:
- The authors should mention in section 2 “Materials and Methods” the fact that the analysis was performed at 3 different storage stages (0, 2.5 and 5 months);
- The parameters and storage conditions, such as humidity (important feature) or storage height, should be included;
- The authors should improve the imagine resolution and the lines should be clearer (for example, in figure 1 the lines are well highlighted without shadows while in figures 2, 3, 5 and 6 the lines/text should be more visible – pronounced, including those of the graphical representation).
Author Response
Our point to point responses are included in the submitted file. All the recommended changes have been taken into account and the inserted information as text in the revised manuscript are highlighted by red color font.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This manuscript entitled ‘Rapid nondestructive postharvest potato freshness and cultivar discrimination assessment’ showed that the PLS regression analysis of spectra reflectance (at the vis/NIR region; 400- 1000 nm) was applied at three commercial cultivars of potato tubers, produced the most reliable models in assessing potato freshness, regardless of the cultivar, with a highly cross-validated regression coefficient, as determined by external or internal measurements, respectively.
The submitted manuscript gives valuable results and it might be helpful for the researchers in the field of nondestructive and discrimination analysis of quality control, physical and chemical properties in agri-food. However, there are specific and several comments as follows;
-Abstract: Please indicate the abbreviation of R-G-B, R-G-NIR, R-B-NIR, PLS, and PLSR.
-Introduction: The summited manuscript is not sufficient explanation for novelty of comparing with previously reported paper in this research field.
- Line 117: Please elucidate briefly more about ‘the usual practices’ for potato growing.
-Line 118: Please provide three cultivars (Spunta, Banba and Sylvana) samples details such as harvesting year, weather conditions, variety identification from authorities, etc. Please provide the photos of three cultivars.
-Line 123: Please provide a statistical explanation of why the author chose 45 samples.
-Line 133: Please provide the meaning of Hue angle and chroma values.
-Line 138: Please indicate information (brand, state, country) of the Nikon D3300 DSLR.
-Line 143: Please double-check 45o.
-Line 163: Please indicate information (brand, state, country) of the Canon Powershot SX260 HS.
-Table 1: Please provide ‘Fi,Fv’
-Line 313, Fig 2: please double-check (B-D) instead of (C-D).
-Line 394: Please explain more about the feasible industrial use of the developed process.
Author Response
Our point to point responses are included in the submitted file. All the recommended changes have been taken into account and the inserted information as text in the revised manuscript are highlighted by red color font.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
