Quality Characteristics of Spelt Pasta Enriched with Spent Grain
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I can confirm that the subject matter of this study (Quality Characteristics of Spelt Pasta Enriched With Spent Grain) is of interest and relevance for publication in Agronomy
Comments to the Authors:
- The authors did not present any hypothesis at the beginning
- The part "Material and methods" is not sufficiently developed. Please supplemented the Materials and Methods
- correct Conclusion - but the conclusion should not be a summary. Add a practical implications statement. In my opinion this section may be improved reducing data and giving few key message/take home message to the readers. An idea may be to synthetize in 3-5 bullet the key results of the study, evidences and recommendation. This improvement will increase clearness and readability. Add a practical implications statement
- other comments were marked in the text of manuscript
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for the recommendations to publication our paper. We appreciate very much your suggestions. We hope that we provide all the answers to your comments about manuscript
" Quality Characteristics of Spelt Pasta Enriched with Spent Grain".
We include all the answers for the reviewers in the space provided. In the original document we use red colour for added text.
Sincerely yours,
Adriana Dabija and Ancuța Chetrariu
Point 1: The authors did not present any hypothesis at the beginning
First of all, we would like to thank the referee for the close reading and for all the given comments suitable for improving the manuscript.
Point 2: The part "Material and methods" is not sufficiently developed. Please supplemented the Materials and Methods
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We supplemented the Materials and Methods.
Point 3: correct Conclusion - but the conclusion should not be a summary. Add a practical implications statement. In my opinion this section may be improved reducing data and giving few key message/take home message to the readers. An idea may be to synthetize in 3-5 bullet the key results of the study, evidences and recommendation. This improvement will increase clearness and readability. Add a practical implications statement
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made a synthesis of the conclusions, highlighting the advantages of using spelt flour mixed with spent grain in the pasta production.
Point 4: other comments were marked in the text of manuscript
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made all changes in the manuscript.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript is interesting and sufficiently well organized. Major concerns are:
- Other studies on the addition of spent grains have been published. The authors must clarify, at the end of the Introduction, before the last sentence, which is the novelty of their study compared to current knowledge and literature.
- Data seem not submitted to statistical analysis. Add a section on “Statistical analysis” to describe how data were statistically analysed, and in Tables add different letters for statistically different data, clarifying the p value.
- The English language and style must be revised by a native English speaker throughout the entire manuscript. There are several mistakes and inaccuracies.
- The section “Material and methods” should not contain any comment. Please synthesize describing the methods without any comment. If the authors consider some comments very important, may move them to Results and discussion.
Line 34. Change “compound” with “ingredients”.
Line 98-99. Change “degree Celsius” to “°C”.
Line 240. Was the sensory study conducted in compliance with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki? Do the assessors signed an informed consent form? Please clarify.
Regarding the sensory data, in Materials and methods it is stated that “For each attribute a five-point hedonic rating scale” was used (line 246), but Figure 4 shows a 10 point scale. Please check and amend.
Line 310. Regarding colour alteration as a consequence of increasing levels of spent grain, in the discussion the concept that today the actual response of consumer to unusual pasta colour is more positive than in the recent past can be reinforced. The recent introduction of new pasta types, perceived as more healthy, such as pasta from whole wheat flour, or from pseudocereals and cereals other than wheat, or pasta added of functional ingredients, has been largely changing the consumer behaviour (Pasqualone, A., Punzi, R., Trani, A., Summo, C., Paradiso, V.M., Caponio, F. and Gambacorta, G., 2017. Enrichment of fresh pasta with antioxidant extracts obtained from artichoke canning by‐products by ultrasound‐assisted technology and quality characterisation of the end product. International Journal of Food Science & Technology, 52, 2078-2087).
Line 428. Amend “Schettinno” to “Schettino”.
Table legends should define all acronyms. Table 3 contains a “M” sample which is absent in the other tables (probably it is the control). Check and amend.
The legend of Fig. 2 should state clearly which are the displayed samples, from left to right.
In the legend of Figure 5 clarify what the plots show and make the font more readable (too small) and clarify the meaning of the three axis x, y, and z. The plots should be numbered so as to be more easily identified with the corresponding sample, as described in the legend.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for the recommendations to publication our paper. We appreciate very much your suggestions. We hope that we provide all the answers to your comments about manuscript
" Quality Characteristics of Spelt Pasta Enriched with Spent Grain".
We include all the answers for the reviewers in the space provided. In the original document we use yellow colour for added text.
Sincerely yours,
Adriana Dabija and Ancuța Chetrariu
The manuscript is interesting and sufficiently well organized. Major concerns are:
Point 1: Other studies on the addition of spent grains have been published. The authors must clarify, at the end of the Introduction, before the last sentence, which is the novelty of their study compared to current knowledge and literature.
First of all, we would like to thank the referee for the close reading and for all the given comments suitable for improving the manuscript. At the end of Introduction, we introduced the novelty of this study by using spelt flour and spent grain from the whisky industry.
Point 2: Data seem not submitted to statistical analysis. Add a section on “Statistical analysis” to describe how data were statistically analysed, and in Tables add different letters for statistically different data, clarifying the p value.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made the changes according to the referee suggestions.
Point 3: The English language and style must be revised by a native English speaker throughout the entire manuscript. There are several mistakes and inaccuracies.
We want to thank to referee for her/his suggestion. The entire manuscript was reviewed by an English teacher.
Point 4: The section “Material and methods” should not contain any comment. Please synthesize describing the methods without any comment. If the authors consider some comments very important, may move them to Results and discussion.
Thank you for your suggestion. We moved some informations to Results part.
Point 5: Line 34. Change “compound” with “ingredients”.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made the changes according to the referee suggestions.
Point 6: Line 98-99. Change “degree Celsius” to “°C”.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made the changes according to the referee suggestions.
Point 7: Line 240. Was the sensory study conducted in compliance with the principles laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki? Do the assessors signed an informed consent form? Please clarify.
This sensory analysis was performed according to the indications of the Declaration of Helsinki of 1975, checked in 2013. All participants gave written informed consent before participation.
Point 8: Regarding the sensory data, in Materials and methods it is stated that “For each attribute a five-point hedonic rating scale” was used (line 246), but Figure 4 shows a 10 point scale. Please check and amend.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. For sensory analysis we used the nine point hedonic scale, the most widely used scale for measuring food acceptability.
Point 9: Line 310. Regarding colour alteration as a consequence of increasing levels of spent grain, in the discussion the concept that today the actual response of consumer to unusual pasta colour is more positive than in the recent past can be reinforced. The recent introduction of new pasta types, perceived as more healthy, such as pasta from whole wheat flour, or from pseudocereals and cereals other than wheat, or pasta added of functional ingredients, has been largely changing the consumer behaviour (Pasqualone, A., Punzi, R., Trani, A., Summo, C., Paradiso, V.M., Caponio, F. and Gambacorta, G., 2017. Enrichment of fresh pasta with antioxidant extracts obtained from artichoke canning by‐products by ultrasound‐assisted technology and quality characterisation of the end product. International Journal of Food Science & Technology, 52, 2078-2087).
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. Indeed, consumers are no longer so sensitive to pasta colour, because they have begun to pay more attention to the qualities of food and not just to their physical appearance.
Point 10: Line 428. Amend “Schettinno” to “Schettino”.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made the changes according to the referee suggestions.
Point 11: Table legends should define all acronyms. Table 3 contains a “M” sample which is absent in the other tables (probably it is the control). Check and amend.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made the changes according to the referee suggestions.
Point 12: The legend of Fig. 2 should state clearly which are the displayed samples, from left to right.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made the changes according to the referee suggestions.
Point 13: In the legend of Figure 5 clarify what the plots show and make the font more readable (too small) and clarify the meaning of the three axis x, y, and z. The plots should be numbered so as to be more easily identified with the corresponding sample, as described in the legend.
We would like to thank to the referee for her/his remarks. We made the changes according to the referee suggestions.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
