PONE-D-23-44219Effects of Marination conditions on the Physico-chemical and microbiological quality on anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) fillets inoculated with Morganella psychrotolerans during cold storage.PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: No

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Too many spelling and grammatical errors in the text.

The title is not written with due care and the scientific names in the text are not written with due care. For example, the bacteria mentioned as "Morganella psychrotolerans" in line 28 of the abstract should be given as M. Psychrotolerans in line 32 of the same section, the names of bacteria should be italicized in all text and tables and binominal nomenclature should be paid attention to (line 200). Do not start with a capital letter after a comma Line 202. References are generally very old. For the 2024 article, too many old references (2004,2012,2011,2014,2013) should be supplemented with new references.

Specific comments

There is no information on microbial load and sterilization in the procurement of fish in the material method.

Lines 125, 131 and 135 are not referenced. There is no information on why the acid levels, time and inputs selected in the marination procedure were chosen. In the analysis periods, for the marinades matured in 21 days, why the 0,3 and 15th day analyzes were made and on the basis of which parameter the marination was completed.

Although microbial analyzes are appropriate in the analysis, the lack of salinity and acidity analyzes despite sensory evaluation is a serious deficiency. Again, since it is an oily fish, PV and TBA are correct analyses, but since the goal in marinating is to reduce acidity and activate protease enzymes, it would be meaningful to have TVB-N data in the analysis.

In the discussion part, especially pH, lactic acid, coliform and total bacteria results should be discussed with a holistic approach. The role of bacteria dominating each other and the role of pH in this process should be explained.

Conclusion

A clear recommendation statement and process description should be made

Reviewer #2: - I recommend that the authors shorten the abstract.

- L55-56: Check the sentence: What is 4.3?

- Introduction: This section contains too much general information. I recommend shortening it. Also, provide at least 3 paragraphs of introduction instead of one.

- Hypothesis and objective: These parts in the introduction need to be improved and rewritten.

- Add a materials and methods section or an experimental section in the manuscript.

- L 120: What are the conditions for obtaining anchovy fillets?

- L125: Did the authors follow any reference method for preparation? If so, include it as well.

- L132: Why 5 min? What is the temperature of the inoculum and the samples? Report it.

- Marination process: There are many typos in this section, especially using symbols. Check it carefully. Similarly, check for typos throughout the manuscript.

- Provide a diagram or a flowchart for the sample preparation, inoculation, and marination.

- L143: Elaborate this section.

- L164: Trained panelists? Experts in the field of what? Or did you train them specifically for this study? Include details as well.

- L172: Why duplicate? Why not triplicate?

- Statistical analysis: This part is not clear. Please elaborate.

- Table 1: The columns that contain 0 values should use - or leave blank. If the authors use -, then provide a note below the table, as growth not found.

- Section Morganella Psychrotolerans: This section lacks discussion. Very few literature reviews are provided. Please elaborate it.

- I recommend splitting Table 1 into many, providing individual microorganism data and placing it below their discussion. For now, Table 1 is overloaded, not convenient to read, and overwhelming.

- A similar recommendation goes for Table 2 as well.

- Sensory analysis: Provide this part in figure format.

- Conclusion: This part needs to be concise and targeting main points.

- Overall: This manuscript contains important data, which is useful, but the authors have written too much when it is not necessary. I recommend that the authors check thoroughly the writing style and include only the necessary information.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Effects of different marination conditions on the physico-chemical and microbiological quality of anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) fillets inoculated with Morganella psychrotolerans during cold storage

PONE-D-23-44219R1

Dear Dr. Oluwatosin Abidemi Ogunkalu

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Academic Editor

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Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: It is an interesting document in the fields of processing and preservation of fish and products. The authors have addressed all my comments and improved manuscript

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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