Can Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) Be Used to Predict Pig’s Meat Quality In Vivo?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this study, the aim was to assess the possibility of application of the bioelectrical impedance analysis as a non-invasive method, which was used to estimating pork quality. The topic of this study has certain significance, however, the experimental design of this study needs to be further described and the content of this paper needs to be further improved.

1. Please note the format of “1h and 24h” and add spaces between the numbers and units.

2. Please delete “them”.

3. Please put a comma after “As a consequence”.

4. Please delete “are”, and pay attention to grammar problem.

5. Please modify this sentence: “The challenge that......”, and pay attention to grammar problem.

6. Please modify this sentence: “The control of meat quality......”.

7. Please modify this sentence: “The solution is......”, and pay attention to grammar problem.

8. Please modify this sentence: “Therefore, non-invasive techniques......”, and pay attention to the grammar problem.

9. Please modify this sentence: “Hence, it is seeking......”, and please pay attention to the correct use of prepositions and prepositional phrase .

10. Please add a comma after “safe”.

11. Please modify “help” to “helping”, and pay attention to the word and grammar problems of this sentence: “Hence, research and exploration......”.

12. Please delete “a”.

13. Please add “the” between “in” and “meat”.

14. Please modify “needs” to “need”.

15. Please modify this sentence and clearly express the meaning of this sentence: “Hence, the aim of......”

16. Please modify “who” to “which”.

17. Please add spaces between the numbers and units.

18. Please express it correctly: “a 20 1 drop”.

19. Please modify this sentence: “The pH1 value are the traits.....”, and pay attention to the grammar problems.

20. Please modify “are” to “is”, and please note that the significant is correct.

21. There is no space between the number and %. Please delete it.

22. Please modify Figure 1 to clearly express what is being expressed.

23. Please modify this sentence: “In our study we applied the multivariate.....”, and pay attention to the grammar problems.

24. Please modify this sentence: “The firs component that explained 33,18%.....”, and pay attention to the grammar and words problems.

25. Please modify “with” to “to”, and add a comma after “color L* value”.

26. Please modify this sentence: “It gives an easy.....”, and pay attention to the grammar problems.

27. Please modify “,” to “.”, and “however” to “However, ”

28. Please note the formatting of the references.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

In this study, the aim was to assess the possibility of application of the bioelectrical impedance analysis as a non-invasive method, which was used to estimating pork quality. The topic of this study has certain significance, however, the experimental design of this study needs to be further described and the content of this paper needs to be further improved.

1. Please note the format of “1h and 24h” and add spaces between the numbers and units.

We corrected it

2. Please delete “them”.
3. Please put a comma after “As a consequence”.
4. Please delete “are”, and pay attention to grammar problem.
5. Please modify this sentence: “The challenge that......”, and pay attention to grammar problem.
6. Please modify this sentence: “The control of meat quality......”.
7. Please modify this sentence: “The solution is......”, and pay attention to grammar problem.
8. Please modify this sentence: “Therefore, non-invasive techniques......”, and pay attention to the grammar problem.
9. Please modify this sentence: “Hence, it is seeking......”, and please pay attention to the correct use of prepositions and prepositional phrase .
10. Please add a comma after “safe”.
11. Please modify “help”to “helping”, and pay attention to the word and grammar problems of this sentence: “Hence, research and exploration......”.
12. Please delete “a”.
13. Please add “the” between “in” and “meat”.
14. Please modify “needs”to “need”.
15. Please modify this sentence and clearly express the meaning of this sentence: “Hence, the aim of......”
16. Please modify “who”to “which”.
17. Please add spaces between the numbers and units.
18. Please express it correctly: “a 20 1 drop”.
19. Please modify this sentence: “The pH1 value are the traits.....”, and pay attention to the grammar problems.
20. Please modify “are”to “is”, and please note that the significant is correct.
21. There is no space between the number and %. Please delete it.
22. Please modify Figure 1 to clearly express what is being expressed.
23. Please modify this sentence: “In our study we applied the multivariate.....”, and pay attention to the grammar problems.
24. Please modify this sentence: “The firs component that explained 33,18%.....”, and pay attention to the grammar and words problems.
25. Please modify “with”to “to”, and add a comma after “color L* value”.
26. Please modify this sentence: “It gives an easy.....”, and pay attention to the grammar problems.
27. Please modify “,”to “.”, and “however”to “However, ”
28. Please note the formatting of the references.

Dear Reviewer.

We would like to thank you for your remarks. We corrected all indicated mistakes in our paper, we hope so your accept our correction.

Thank you very much for your help.

Thank you very much for your time and kindness.

Reviewer 2 Report

Reviewer’s Comments:

The manuscript “Bioelectrical impedance analysis in the process of the empirical quality of pork meat estimation” is very interesting work. The aim of this study was to assess the possibility of application of the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in order to estimate pork quality. The BIA measurements were tested on living animals for prediction of the meat quality. The absolute resultant electrical resistance (Rz) and reaktance (Xc) of the body was measured with a set of disposable surface electrodes at the frequency of 50 kHz and current intensity 400 µA. The characteristics of meat quality: pH measured 1h and 24h after slaughter, meat colour parameters represented in CIE L*a*b* system, glycolytic potential, intramuscular fat and natural drip loss were measured on the samples of the Longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. The slaughter value of pigs was characterised on the basis of hot carcass weight (HCW) and percent of meat in carcass. I believe this topic is of great interest to our reader, I think it needs minor revision before it is ready for publishing. So, I recommend this manuscript for publication in this Journal with minor revisions.

1. In this manuscript, the authors did not explain the importance of impedance analysis in the introduction part. The authors should explain the importance of impedance analysis.

2. The author should provide reason about this statement “Multivariate statistical method (PCA and CA) showed the potential to use the bioelectrical impedance analysis in the process of estimation of the meat quality of pork but further studies with bioelectrical impedance procedures are needed”.

3. The title of the manuscript is not impressive so imropve/rewrite it.

4. The author should provide reason about this statement…, The meat was characterised by good ultimate pH value and meat color parametres with low natural drip loss and good intramuscular fat level”.

5. The authors should explain regarding the recent literature why “The intensity of post-slaughter glycolysis also affects the condition of muscle proteins, their ability to water holding capacity and therefore natural drip loss and color parameters”.

6. The author should provide reason about this statement, Thorough research showed that BIA technology can be an accurate predictor of beef carcass composition.

7. Comparison of the present results with other similar findings in the literature should be discussed in more detail. This is necessary in order to place this work together with other work in the field and to give more credibility to the present results.

8. The authors should pay more attention to the English grammar, and the abbreviation of journal names in Ref.

9. The conclusion part is very weak. Improve by adding the results of your studies.

Author Response

The manuscript “Bioelectrical impedance analysis in the process of the empirical quality of pork meat estimation” is very interesting work. The aim of this study was to assess the possibility of application of the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) in order to estimate pork quality. The BIA measurements were tested on living animals for prediction of the meat quality. The absolute resultant electrical resistance (Rz) and reaktance (Xc) of the body was measured with a set of disposable surface electrodes at the frequency of 50 kHz and current intensity 400 µA. The characteristics of meat quality: pH measured 1h and 24h after slaughter, meat colour parameters represented in CIE L*a*b* system, glycolytic potential, intramuscular fat and natural drip loss were measured on the samples of the Longissimus dorsi (LD) muscle. The slaughter value of pigs was characterised on the basis of hot carcass weight (HCW) and percent of meat in carcass. I believe this topic is of great interest to our reader, I think it needs minor revision before it is ready for publishing. So, I recommend this manuscript for publication in this Journal with minor revisions.

1. In this manuscript, the authors did not explain the importance of impedance analysisin the introduction part. The authors should explain the importance of impedance analysis.

We added some information about application of impedance analysis to practical breeding strategy.

2. The author should provide reason about this statement “Multivariate statistical method (PCA and CA) showed the potential to use the bioelectrical impedance analysis in the process of estimation of the meat quality of pork but further studies with bioelectrical impedance procedures are needed”.

According to your suggestion this statement were improved. Thank you to your remark.

3. The title of the manuscript is not impressive so imropve/rewrite it.

We improved the title of the work.

4. The author should provide reason about this statement…, The meat was characterised by good ultimate pH value and meat color parametres with low natural drip loss and good intramuscular fat level”.

In the text we added explanation of statement about meat quality.

We added the followed sentence: The analysis of the obtained pH values, color brightness (L *) and natural drip loss showed that among the tested samples there were no cases of defective meat such as PSE, DFD or the so-called "acid meat".

5. The authors should explain regarding the recent literature why “The intensity of post-slaughter glycolysis also affects the condition of muscle proteins, their ability to water holding capacity and therefore natural drip loss and color parameters”.

We have developed this issue more broadly. As follows:

As it has been shown in many studies, fast glycolysis is associated with an increase in muscle temperature and leads to the degradation of muscle proteins, and thus to a lightening of their color and a reduction in water retention capacity [30, 31].

6. The author should provide reason about this statement, Thorough research showed that BIA technology can be an accurate predictor of beef carcass composition.

The reason of this statement is explained in the manuscript.

7. Comparison of the present results with other similar findings in the literature should be discussed in more detail. This is necessary in order to place this work together with other work in the field and to give more credibility to the present results.

Dear Reviewer in our work, we used all the publications available to us (from the last twenty years) on the practical application of BIA to assess and predict the quality of carcasses of slaughter animals.

8. The authors should pay more attention to the English grammar, and the abbreviation of journal names in Ref.

It is improved.

9. The conclusion part is very weak. Improve by adding the results of your studies.

The conclusion section is improved.

Thank you very much for your time, all remarks and insightful comments

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author has responded to the questions raised by the reviewers and revised them. The manuscript has met the publishing requirements, and it is recommended to receive and publish it.

Reviewer 2 Report

The author responded to all issues, and I recommend accepting the manuscript in its present form.