Review Reports
by
- Maryuri T. Nuñez de González,
- Rahmat Attaie * and
- Yoonsung Jung
- et al.
Reviewer 1: Anonymous Reviewer 2: Kuan-Chen Cheng Reviewer 3: Anonymous
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript describes the Fucoxanthin as a Biofunctional Compound in Goat Milk Yogurt: Stability and Physicochemical Effects. I recommend this manuscript for publication in your esteemed Fermentation journal, after the following major revisions:
1) Add nomenclature to the manuscript.
2) Add the experimental conditions to all figures of the manuscript.
3) The summary and the conclusion should be more quantitative.
4) Please highlight the novelty of this study in the manuscript.
5) Add more figures to the manuscript to describe the different section.
6) Check and confirm the value of the standard error (SE) in all tables. It is difficult to find the same standard error in each table (for example in table 3, all value are +/- 1.30).
7) #….This is probably due to the fact that 314 the carotenoid molecules are lipophilic ……diameters of 316 dispersed fat particles in yogurt. # and #.... This reduction in percent recovery of fucoxanthin from yogurt could be due to the degradation of fucoxanthin by starter culture during growth and fermentation.#. add references to confirm your conclusions.
7) Compare the obtained results to the literature review.
8) The English language of the manuscript should be re-approved by a native speaker.
Author Response
Manuscript ID: Fermentation-2252294
Title: Fucoxanthin as a Biofunctional Compound in Goat Milk Yogurt: Stability and Physicochemical Effects
Dear Reviewer:
The authors would like to thank you for the time and efforts you spent reviewing this manuscript and making suggestions for improving it. Indeed, the peer-review process will improve the quality of manuscripts that will be published in the journal of Fermentation. As a reciprocity, we will review any manuscript that will be referred to us. Once again thanks for all your efforts.
Sincerely,
Rahmat Attaie
Corresponding Author
Point by Point Responses to the Reviewer's Comments
Reviewer 1.
1. Add Nomenclature to the manuscript.
Answer: The scientific nomenclature was used in the manuscript. However, a new list of abbreviations was added to the manuscript at the end before the reference section of the manuscript.
2. Add the experimental conditions to all figures of the manuscript.
Answer: Additional information about experimental conditions was added to figures 2 and 3.
3. The summary and the conclusion should be more quantitative.
Answer: Additional quantitative information was added to the abstract and conclusion sections of the manuscript.
4. Please, highlight the novelty of this study in the manuscript.
Answer: An additional paragraph was added to the end of the Introduction Section of the manuscript to emphasize the novelty of this study.
“To our knowledge, the stability of fucoxanthin during heat of processing to 80 °C for 30 min has not previously been studied in either cow or goat milks or during the fermentation process of dairy products. We expected that goat milk caseins will be more effective in preventing the chemical degradation of fucoxanthin in foods during the heat of processing and storage than cow milk caseins primarily due to the content of β-casein in goat milk. The β-casein component of goat milk protein is highly hydrophobic in nature and, thus, could form a thick protective layer preventing oxidation of fucoxanthin and enhance the chemical stability of this carotenoid in human foods. Hence, in the current study we produced goat milk yogurt, a novelty product….”
5. Add more figures to the manuscript to describe the different section.
Answer: Most of the analyses that were performed in the laboratory such as compositional, textural, and other physicochemical analyses are routine laboratory analyses and are described in detail in the text of the manuscript. Presentation of figures will cause redundancy of data.
6. Check and confirm the value of the standard error (SE) in all tables. It is difficult to find the same standard error in each table (for example in table 3, all value are +/- 1.30).
Answer: Our data are balanced, i.e., data has the same number of observations in each of the treatment. Since the design of experiment is balanced, the standard errors are all the same. Statistically it makes perfect sense and means fully satisfied the assumption of homogeneous error structures. After consulting with the biostatistician, all the footnotes to the tables were changed.
7. #.... This is probably due to the fact that 314 the carotenoid molecules are lipophilic ……diameters of 316 dispersed fat particles in yogurt. # and # ….This reduction in percent recovery of fucoxanthin from yogurt could be due to the degradation of fucoxanthin by starter culture during growth and fermentation.#. add references to confirm your conclusions.
Answer: The statement “This is probably due to the fact that…” implies an assumption based on our understanding and observation of how fucoxanthin behaves in a hydrophobic and hydrophilic food matrix (please refer to lines 347 to 350).
After fermentation, we noticed that the percent recovery of fucoxanthin went down and it was speculated that this phenomenon could be due to the metabolizing of fucoxanthin by starter bacteria during fermentation (refers to lines 291 to 293). This is a new product and as far as we know, there are no references on this subject.
8. The English language of the manuscript should be re-approved by a native speaker.
Answer: A qualified native speaker reviewed and corrected the language of the manuscript.
Reviewer 2 Report
In this study, the authors added Fucoxanthin to goat milk yogurt and evaluated its suitability as beverage addtive with biofunction. In my opinion, this report is merely a study of thermostability and storage stability. The exp design and results are not related to fermentation and also lack of novelty. Addition of Fucoxanthin affected beverage color after heating and lose around 2% W after four weeks. The authors may also explain why the consumers not just take Fucoxanthin as food supplement. and why the goat milk yogurt was adopted as "carrier"? Therefore, I must reject it.
Author Response
Manuscript ID: Fermentation-2252294
Title: Fucoxanthin as a Biofunctional Compound in Goat Milk Yogurt: Stability and Physicochemical Effects
Dear Reviewer:
The authors would like to thank you for the time and efforts you spent reviewing this manuscript and making suggestions for improving it. Indeed, the peer-review process will improve the quality of manuscripts that will be published in the journal of Fermentation. As a reciprocity, we will review any manuscript that will be referred to us. Once again thanks for all your efforts.
Sincerely,
Rahmat Attaie
Corresponding Author
Point by Point Responses to the Reviewer's Comments
Reviewer 2.
In this study, the authors added Fucoxanthin to goat milk yogurt and evaluated its suitability as beverage additive with biofunction.
In my opinion, this report is merely a study of thermostability and storage stability. The exp design and results are not related to fermentation and also lack of novelty. Addition of Fucoxanthin affected beverage color after heating and lose around 2% W after four weeks. The authors may also explain why the consumers not just take Fucoxanthin as food supplement. and why the goat milk yogurt was adopted as “carrier”?. Therefore, I must reject it.
Answer: The authors want to clarify to Reviewer 2 that fucoxanthin was added into goat milk and then fermented to yogurt, fucoxanthin was not directly mixed with the already made goat milk yogurt. The effects of bacterial fermentation, acidity, heating temperature, and storage stability were all studied as manufacturing parameters.
Another point that Reviewer 2 made is the following “Addition of Fucoxanthin affected beverage color after heating and lose around 2% W after four weeks”. The yogurt did not lose 2% W after four weeks. We did not observed any significant differences (P < 0.05) in water holding capacity or percent recovery of fucoxanthin in yogurt after four weeks of storage (Please refer to Table 3 and 5).
Another point that Reviewer 2 makes is the following “The authors may also explain why the consumers not just take Fucoxanthin as food supplement”. This manufactured goat milk yogurt with fucoxanthin (0.052 mg/g of yogurt) in this study is a food supplement. We do not know if the Reviewer 2 means to explain why people should not take fucoxanthin as supplemental capsules or pills. The preference of consumers to functional and healthy food verses chemically synthetized and concentrated compounds in the forms of capsules or pills is a debatable question and philosophical point of view that differ among people.
Additionally, other articles similar to our manuscript on yogurt (Fermented dairy products) have been published in Fermentation Journal. For examples:
- Fortification of cow milk with Moringa oleifera extract: Influence on Physicochemical characteristics, antioxidant capacity and mineral content of yoghurt. Fermentation 2022, 8, 545.
- The effect of yogurt and kefir starter cultures on bioactivity of fermented industrial by-product from Cannabis sativa production-Hemp press cake. Fermentation 2022, 8, 490.
Reviewer 3 Report
Fucoxanthin as a Biofunctional Compound in Goat Milk Yogurt: Stability and Physicochemical Effects
Minor comments:
Line 30: insert full name of Streptococcus ssp. thermophiles
Lines 31-33: only two starter cultures are used for the production of yogurt, while yogurt-likes are made with the addition of any other bacterial cultures – change sentence
Tables 3 and 4- Interestingly, the standard errors are always the same. How many biological replicates were done?
Table 5 – insert what “n” is mean
Major comments:
Explain clearly how you made the yogurts (neither the text nor the table is clear). Additionally, explain why you used sugar in making the yogurt.
Are you sure anyone would use yogurt that has the color shown in Figure 3B? An acceptability study of this product should also be done.
Author Response
Manuscript ID: Fermentation-2252294
Title: Fucoxanthin as a Biofunctional Compound in Goat Milk Yogurt: Stability and Physicochemical Effects
Dear Reviewer:
The authors would like to thank you for the time and efforts you spent reviewing this manuscript and making suggestions for improving it. Indeed, the peer-review process will improve the quality of manuscripts that will be published in the journal of Fermentation. As a reciprocity, we will review any manuscript that will be referred to us. Once again thanks for all your efforts.
Sincerely,
Rahmat Attaie
Corresponding Author
Point by Point Responses to the Reviewer's Comments
Reviewer 3.
Minor comments:
1. Line 30: Insert full name of Streptococcus ssp. thermophiles.
Answer: we inserted “Streptococcus salivarius ssp. thermophilus” (instead of Streptococcus ssp. thermophilus) to the manuscript (line 31).
2. Line 31-33: only two starter cultures are used for the production of yogurt, while yogurt-likes are made with the addition of any other bacterial cultures – change sentence.
Answer: The sentence was changed to “ Other yogurt starter cultures may include Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus lactis, Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium bifidus, and Bifidobacterium infantis (lines 32-34).
3. Table 3 and 4- Interestingly, the standard errors are always the same. How many biological replicates were done.
Answer: Our data are balanced, i.e., data has the same number of observations in each of the treatment. Since the design of experiment is balanced, the standard errors are all the same. Statistically it makes perfect sense and means fully satisfied the assumption of homogeneous error structures. After consulting with the biostatistician, all the footnotes to the tables were changed by the authors. A total of three replicates were performed in this study (please refer to line 269).
4. Insert what “n” is mean.
Answer: “n” in Tables 5 and 6 means sample size. This was added to the footnotes of the tables in the manuscript.
Major comments:
5. Explain clearly how you made the yogurts (neither the text nor the table is clear. Additionally, explain why you used sugar in making the yogurt.
Answer:
We tried to clearly explain the yogurt manufacturing processes stepwise in the lines 101 to 115. Also Figure (1) graphically presents the processing steps of making goat milk yogurt.
Traditionally people in the United States do not like sour tasting yogurt and would prefer to consume sweetened yogurts. Most yogurt manufacturing companies in the United States add either sugar or artificial sweeteners in their formulation of yogurts.
6. Are you sure anyone would use yogurt that has the color shown in Figure 3B? An acceptability study of this product should also be done.
Answer:
Commercial yogurt companies in the United States produce a lot of orange/yellowish- colored yogurts with addition of minced fruits or purees of peaches, mangoes, passion fruits, apricots, and oranges.
We are planning to perform another study on the acceptability of this product and its optimum concentration on body weight loss in human diet.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Can be accepted in it s current form
Reviewer 2 Report
I am satisfied with the revision.