Microencapsulation of Natural Food Antimicrobials: Methods and Applications
, Emilie Dumas 2, Samia Azabou 3, Philippe Dantigny 4 and Adem Gharsallaoui 2,*Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The article entitled "Microencapsulation of natural food antimicrobials: methods and applications" follows a review on the microencapsulation of bioactive agents that could be considered as alternatives to different antimicrobials from food matrices. Also, various encapsulation methods including molecular inclusion, spray-drying, coacervation, emulsification, supercritical antisolvent precipitation, liposome and alginate microbeads are described and discussed. Although several other studies have been written that approach a rather similar subject, the manuscript brings the novelty in the applications of these microencapsulated food antimicrobials which I find very interesting and valuable. Nevertheless, some changes need to be done before the manuscript is accepted for publication.
Line 16: add etc.. not three dots.
The abstract needs to be rewritten so that it presents clearer and a bit more in detail what the review highlighted.
The Introduction section is rather complete but it needs to highlight the differences that the mentioned manuscript brings to the scientific field compared to other similar studies.
Table 1. Different methods and wall materials used for microencapsulation of antimicrobial agents - It would be very interesting to also stipulate in the table the parameters of the encapsulation process, the encapsulation efficiency and against which pathogen the antimicrobial agent had an effect.
Line 102: the correct form of the verb is ''occurs'' not '' is occured''.
Section: Spray-drying: Be careful when you express the concentration: either 0.714 g x L-1 or 0.714 g/L concentration. Remove the dot as it is incorrect.
Table 2. Applications of encapsulated antimicrobials for food preservation. - please make the font smaller so that all the letters of the words are on the same line.
The English level of the manuscript is good but just some corrections must be made regarding the English grammar:
- Use the forms “a”, “an” or “the” in order to define the word. Remember, to use A, AN, and THE properly, you must know whether or not a noun is a Count or Non-Count Noun. (A count noun is the name of something that can be counted: one experiment, two experiments, three experiments. A non-count noun is the name of something that cannot be counted: milk, flour, freedom, justice, food).
- Check each verb to see if it has the right form and check the tenses you want to use. Pay attention which tense you want to use if you have present tense for example, stick to this tense throughout the whole sentence.
- Use the correct form of the verb as requested by the used noun (Pay attention if the noun is countable or not).
Throughout the whole manuscript: Please replace “ml” with “mL” or “l” with “L” to avoid any confusion with the number 1.
Author Response
Author's Reply to the Review Report (Reviewer 1):
The article entitled "Microencapsulation of natural food antimicrobials: methods and applications" follows a review on the microencapsulation of bioactive agents that could be considered as alternatives to different antimicrobials from food matrices. Also, various encapsulation methods including molecular inclusion, spray-drying, coacervation, emulsification, supercritical antisolvent precipitation, liposome and alginate microbeads are described and discussed. Although several other studies have been written that approach a rather similar subject, the manuscript brings the novelty in the applications of these microencapsulated food antimicrobials which I find very interesting and valuable. Nevertheless, some changes need to be done before the manuscript is accepted for publication.
Line 16: add etc.. not three dots.
Answer: It have been changed and thank you for your correction.
The abstract needs to be rewritten so that it presents clearer and a bit more in detail what the review highlighted.
Answer: Thank you for your suggestion. We have rewritten the abstract and highlighted the purpose of our review.
The Introduction section is rather complete but it needs to highlight the differences that the mentioned manuscript brings to the scientific field compared to other similar studies.
Answer: Thank you for your suggestion. We have rewritten the instruction and compare it with several recent published reviews in line 66-80.
Table 1. Different methods and wall materials used for microencapsulation of antimicrobial agents - It would be very interesting to also stipulate in the table the parameters of the encapsulation process, the encapsulation efficiency and against which pathogen the antimicrobial agent had an effect.
Answer: Thank you for your suggestion. We added the parameters "Encapsulation efficiency" in Table 1. In this table, we would like only to summarize the used methods, wall materials, and natural antibacterial agents used for microencapsulation. Regarding the details of microencapsulation, we selected some representative papers, which are summarized in Table 2. Meanwhile, we added a part “main results” in Table 2.
Line 102: the correct form of the verb is ''occurs'' not '' is occured''.
Answer: It have been changed and thank you for your correcting.
Section: Spray-drying: Be careful when you express the concentration: either 0.714 g x L-1 or 0.714 g/L concentration. Remove the dot as it is incorrect.
Answer: Thank you for your correction. We have corrected all this kind of mistakes in our manuscript.
Table 2. Applications of encapsulated antimicrobials for food preservation. - please make the font smaller so that all the letters of the words are on the same line.
Answer: Thank you for your kind suggestion. It was done.
The English level of the manuscript is good but just some corrections must be made regarding the English grammar:
Answer: Highly appreciate for your kind suggestion and this is very useful. We have been reconsidered the manuscript and corrected some similar problems.
Use the forms “a”, “an” or “the” in order to define the word. Remember, to use A, AN, and THE properly, you must know whether or not a noun is a Count or Non-Count Noun. (A count noun is the name of something that can be counted: one experiment, two experiments, three experiments. A non-count noun is the name of something that cannot be counted: milk, flour, freedom, justice, food).
Check each verb to see if it has the right form and check the tenses you want to use. Pay attention which tense you want to use if you have present tense for example, stick to this tense throughout the whole sentence.
Use the correct form of the verb as requested by the used noun (Pay attention if the noun is countable or not).
Throughout the whole manuscript: Please replace “ml” with “mL” or “l” with “L” to avoid any confusion with the number 1.
Answer: Thank you for your useful suggestion. We have been corrected all these mistakes.
Reviewer 2 Report
The present review paper describes the different methods for microencapsulation and their application for food natural antimicrobials.
The paper is well written and illustrated. However, there is no originality. A lot of review papers on the topic exist, so far. Even, the latest is from 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.108180 . The Authors should better emphasize the originality of the paper.
I propose to include in Table 2 a column indicating some numerical values of how improved the antimicrobial effect is compared to the control.
Please check the references. For example 105 - the first name of the author is given, instead of the surname.
Author Response
Author's Reply to the Review Report (Reviewer 2):
The present review paper describes the different methods for microencapsulation and their application for food natural antimicrobials.
The paper is well written and illustrated. However, there is no originality. A lot of review papers on the topic exist, so far. Even, the latest is from 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2021.108180 . The Authors should better emphasize the originality of the paper.
Answer: In this review, we would like to focus on the main current applications of encapsulated antimicrobials in various food products and also discuss the development of encapsulation methods. Thank you for your suggestion. We have rewritten the abstract and reorganized the introduction (lines 66-80). Hopefully it will be clearer to show our focus.
I propose to include in Table 2 a column indicating some numerical values of how improved the antimicrobial effect is compared to the control.
Answer: Thank you for your suggestion. We added a result part in Table 2.
Please check the references. For example 105 - the first name of the author is given, instead of the surname.
Answer: Thank you for your correction. We modified the reference 119.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
I have asked to include some numerical data of how improved the antimicrobial effect is compared to the control, you actually included encapsulation efficiency, which is a piece of valuable information, but not the one I meant. Table 1 is not discussed at all.
Author Response
Dear Editor,
Please find below the answers for the reviewer’s comments. I would like to thanks them for these relevant suggestions.
Author's Reply to the Review Report (Reviewer 2):
Dear Authors,
I have asked to include some numerical data of how improved the antimicrobial effect is compared to the control, you actually included encapsulation efficiency, which is a piece of valuable information, but not the one I meant. Table 1 is not discussed at all.
Answer: We are very sorry for our negligence. We have added the main result for each citation in Table 1 and rewritten the sentence in the line 85-87. The main results of these papers include the antibacterial results compared to the control and the optimization of the encapsulation process. This makes the description more reasonable. Thank you for your kind suggestion again.
Sincerely
A. Gharsallaoui
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
