Nutritional Composition and Chemical Safety of Wagashi Gassirè Cheese Sold in the Southern Benin Markets

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

1. Summary

We would like to thank the reviewer 1 for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.

3. Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments 1: Line 45: Please insert “Wagashi Gassire cheese” instead of “cheese” in the “Keywords”

Response 1: We thank the reviewer for pointing this out. We agree with this comment. Therefore, we have inserted “Wagashi Gassire cheese” instead of “cheese” in the “Keywords” (see line 46).

Comments 2: Lines 58-65: Please explain the method of cheese-making in detail. Give some information about the time needed for coagulum formation after adding the coagulating enzyme to the milk, temperature and time applied for cooking the coagulum and the method of cheese salting (dry salting or immesing in brine, etc).

Response 2: We thank the reviewer for pointing this out. We have added information regarding the time needed for coagulum formation after adding the coagulating enzyme to the milk (see line 64) and about temperature and time applied for cooking the coagulum (see line 64). Wagashi Gassirè is not salted (see line 65-66).

Comments 3: Line 363: Some parameters such as LAB activities, the amount and method of salting and cheese moisture content could be affected the pH of final product. How many days after cheese production has been the pH analysis done? Can the phenomena like glycolysis, proteolysis and lipolysis occurred during ripening of cheese be considered effective in the pH value of final product? Please address the mentioned items in the “discussion” section.

Response 3: We thank the reviewer for pointing this out. We have added information regarding the production time, the sampling time and the analysis time (see lines 111, 113) in the materials and methods section. In the discussion section, we highlighted the fact that Wagashi Gassirè is a non-salted and non-ripened cheese sold often unpacked. Then, the pH decrease observed is more related to the LAB activities than others phenomena (see lines 368-369) and the LAB activities would be more important with the time as Wagashi Gassirè sampling was done three days after production (see lines 372-374).

Comments 4: Lines 383-400: In order to make more complete the discussion, please add the chemical composition of raw cow milk used for the cheese production in Benin.

Response 4: We thank the reviewer for its comment. We would like to point the fact some chemical composition parameters such as proteins and fat contents of the raw cow milk usually used in Benin for WG production were discussed (see lines 397-398). However, the raw cow milk used for the production of the Wagashi Gassirè samples analysed in this study was not available as this milk was not sampled. The Wagashi Gassirè samples of this study were sampling in the markets. We conducted other study with sampling of milk and the corresponding Wagashi Gassirè cheese. These data of this study are actually under statistical analyses and would be considered to be publish in Dairy at right time.

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

1. Summary

We would like to thank the reviewer 2 for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.

3. Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments 1: In this article, the nutritional attributes and chemical hazard substances of Wagashi Gassirè cheese made in the south of Benin were assessed. This research appears to lack complexity and does not incorporate the utilization or development of advanced technologies or techniques.

Response 1: We would like to thank the reviewer for it comment. As mentioned by the reviewer, the objective of this article was to assess the nutritional attributes and chemical hazard substances of Wagashi Gassirè cheese produced in Benin and sold in the southern markets of the country (see lines 99-101). The production of WG is based on traditional processing (see lines 56-57). Therefore, advanced technologies or techniques were not required. Moreover, reviewer stated that the article appears to lack complexity. This may be view as a good aspect as the research papers should be write in a simple way to facilitate the reading.

Comments 2: The quality of the abstract is substandard and requires substantial rewriting.

Response 2: We would like to thank the reviewer for its comment. A good abstract should contain the objective of the research work, the methodology used, the important results and the conclusion. All of these parts are included in our abstract. However, we done some change regarding the comments of the reviewer (see lines 31-36).

Comments 3: Supplementary material has been mentioned many times, but there was no supplementary material provided.

Response 3: We would like to thank the reviewer for it comment. Two files of supplementary material were provided. The first file is regarding the sample preparation, conditions of instrumental analyses and quality assurance of the analytical results. This word file is named ‘’ Supplementary material (analytical methods)’’. We mentioned this supplementary material in lines 115-116. The second file is an excel file that contained all the individual results obtained for all analysis done for the 15 WG samples. This file is named ‘’ Supplementary material (Table S1 - S9)’’. We mentioned the tables contained in this file many times in the results section (see lines 208, 241, 263, 272, 282, 292, 294, 313, 322, 324, 327)

Comments 4: On many occasions some abbreviations were used without specifying their meanings, such as EFSA.

Response 4: We would like to thank the reviewer for it comment. We rechecked all abbreviations used in the paper and defined all of them at their first usage. We found that some abbreviations such as AFM1, LOQ and EFSA were not defined at the first usage and we did it (see lines 33, 141, 163).

Comments 5: It has been mentioned that “samples of this study were susceptible to environmental contamination.” However, there were no micro investigations done. A micro-assessment should be provided that could support the value of the research and the discussion.

Response 5: We would like to thank the reviewer for it comment. We understand by micro investigations relating to the environmental contamination that the ambient air of the Wagashi Gassirè cheese should be assessed regarding the trace metals contamination. Then, the contribution of the atmosphere to the global contamination of Wagashi Gassirè should be clearly explained. Unfortunately, this matter could not be addressed in this paper as its objective was not the determination of the contribution of the different sources of metal contamination to the global contamination of Wagashi Gassirè. Regarding the Wagashi Gassirè production and trading conditions, environmental contamination is one hypothesis that could explain the global contamination of the cheese. For that, we change the sentence ‘’ the collection point of WG samples of this study was susceptible to environmental contamination’’ by ‘’ the collection point of WG samples of this study may be susceptible to environmental contamination’’ (see lines 461-462, 580-582).     

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

1. Summary

We would like to thank the reviewer 3 for taking the time to review this manuscript. Please find the detailed responses below and the corresponding revisions/corrections highlighted/in track changes in the re-submitted files.

3. Point-by-point response to Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Comments 1: Authors performed a lot of analyses to asses the chemical composition and risk profile of local cheese.

Response 1: We would like to thank the reviewer for it comment. As stated by the reviewer, a lot of analysis were done and presented in this paper. This paper is a preliminary study performed as part of a doctoral project which aims to optimize the nutritional attributes and to standardize the processing methods of Wagashi Gassirè cheese. Moreover, this research was done in the context of the Protected Denomination of Origin certification project of this cheese. Therefore, a lot of information regarding its nutritional components are needed.

Comments 2: I would suggest to include the sampling size calculation for is type of study. As only 15 (6+9 of two cheese types) samples were tested, are collected data relevant for the risk assessment? Findings of contaminants (metals) of serious public health threat must be critically discussed, and I would be very careful in stating that risk is negligible after consuming this cheese.

Response 2: We would like to thank the reviewer for its suggestions. For the study described in this paper, analyzing as many WG samples as possible would be recommended and this was appointed in conclusion (see lines 613-615). The collected data are relevant for nutritional and risk assessment. We also reviewed the discussion regarding the metal contamination (see lines 473-477, 483-486, 498-500, 523-525). The conclusions of the negligible risk expressed in this paper is based on the calculated Margin of Exposure. However, this risk assessment should be extended to all dietary sources of metals as outlined in line 488.

Comments 3: If additional data on cheese analyses exist for other regions of the country, I would suggest to pool them, and to reconsider the exposed population.

Response 3: We would like to thank the reviewer for its suggestion. This study is the first study done in Benin which reported metal contamination in Wagashi Gassirè cheese. We are working in other aspect of the Wagashi Gassirè cheese production which may include a large sample size.

Comments 4: If authors can provide sample size calculation, and additional data, it should be incorporated into the text. Also, they should elaborate the significance of findings of some toxic metals in cheese, and revise their risk assessment results in that sense.

Response 4: This comment is a summary of the other comments and we would like to thank the reviewer for taking the time to review our paper. As expressed in response 2, analyzing as many WG samples as possible would be recommended and this was appointed in conclusion (see lines 613-615). The collected data are relevant for nutritional and risk assessment. We also reviewed the discussion regarding the metal contamination (see lines 473-477, 483-486, 498-500, 523-525). The conclusions of the negligible risk expressed in this paper is based on the calculated Margin of Exposure. However, this risk assessment should be extended to all dietary sources of metals as outlined in line 488.