Using Olive Cake as a Sustainable Ingredient in Diets of Lactating Dairy Cows: Effects on Nutritional Characteristics of Cheese

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have done great work and the results are promising, but although the results show a significant effect of diet on the FA profile of cheese, more information should be provided on milk quality. The author did not address the effects of olive cake on the fatty acids and polyphenols of cow's milk, which is necessary for further conclusions. The raw materials for cheese production should be known.

Cheese production is not described in the article. The process should be clearly described and stated if the conditions of cheese production were the same for all samples.

The authors emphasise the advantages of the obtained results over previous results, especially those indicating a significant influence of season on cheese quality, which is a great contribution to research.

The authors should explain the next clues:

1.            How does nutrition correlate with milk yield?

2.            The chemical composition and fatty acid profile of raw milk did not show. Why?

3.            The reference no. 14. should be replaced by  new research results

4.            Figure 2. is not clear to read. It consists of too many parts (numbers in one). It should be split

5.            Table 4 p -values are written as .0001 instead of 0.0001, for example. Are these the rules of the journal or not?

6.            Line 224. statement: "A significant effect of the regime diet on the biosynthesis of carbohydrates, fatty acids, lipids and amino acids was revealed by the prediction of metabolic pathways...“ should have some reference.--   

Author Response

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Reviewer 2 Report

1、  The author first introduced functional foods at the beginning of the introduction. Is the author trying to classify the cheese produced in this study as a functional food? Judging from the specific data, the composition of the cheese produced in this project is not much different from that of ordinary cheese, and can be called a healthy food rather than a functional food.

2、  The full name and abbreviation of a term should be defined where it first occurs. Once defined, only the abbreviation should appear below. There are a lot of instances in the text where full names are used after definition or abbreviations are defined repeatedly.

3、  SD for the data in table 1, table 3 and table 4 should be added. And for each index of the two groups, significance of differences should be noted, which was missed but important for discussion and conclusion.

4、  What does SEM in table3 represent? It was not defined.

5、  In table 3, what do the data in columns of diet, season and Diet × Season mean? Are they p value?

6、  As shown in table 3, all the indexes were very closed except for the total polyphenols. I suspect the closed data were not significantly different.

7、   In general, references should not appear in conclusions.

need more careful checks

Author Response

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Reviewer 3 Report

This study aimed to investigate the chemical composition and fatty acid profile of Provola cheese made with cow's milk from cows fed a diet incorporating olive cake. The manuscript is interesting and is within the aim of the journal. My main concerns are:

1. The high similarity (35%). I don't know if the journal accepts such a level!!

2. The abstract is very concise. You should include more information and summarize your results. 

3. Abbreviations should be defined at the first use.

4. If the determination of polyphenol is the main novelty of the work. them is a week study.

5. Information on the used version of the AOAC must be included. For example, the year of publication. Don't forget to cite it.

6. Some information on milk production and composition will help the readers to be more familiar with your results.

7. You need to shorten your conclusions.

Author Response

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Reviewer 4 Report

This scientific paper titled  Using olive cake as a sustainable ingredient in diets of lactating dairy cows: effects on nutritional characteristics of cheese analyzed the chemical composition, fatty acid profile and polyphenol content of Provola cheese made with cow's milk from cows fed a diet that incorporated olive cake. The results of the study show that the incorporation of olive cake in the diet of lactating dairy cows has a significant effect on the reduction of atherogenic and thrombogenic indices while contributing to the increase of total polyphenols in the cheese product. Therefore, Provola cheese falls into the category of functional foods. These innovative and functional features would be welcomed and appreciated by consumers, both for their health benefits and for the recovery of waste resulting from the technology of obtaining olive oil, which also contributes to the protection of the environment.

I recommend that authors do not use citations of other studies in their research conclusions.

Author Response

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Reviewer 5 Report

The paper is generally well written and approaches quite a valuable topic as it ultimately deals with health issues that everybody is always concerned about.

I believe the paper may be accepted even in its current form. However, I would like to mention a few things, with the aim to bring some improvements.
 
- Lines 178 and 179 - please state the origin of the formulae used, or explain how were they obtained.
- it would be great if the paper would take into account (at least briefly) also the costs associated with the olive cake (OC) production and usage, and in the same time, the impact on the final price of the cheese product. Will the benefits for humans overcome the costs and the final higher price that the consumer will pay? What if the same health benefits could be obtained by eating regular cheese and separate olive oil or another olive derived product? What about the health benefits of the cows? If they will become healthier, or live longer, can this be a factor for a more sustainable environment? All these details are worth taking into account and discussed as they will bring more overall value to the whole conducted research.

English looks fine.

Author Response

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Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

no more comments

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors addressed all my comments. Now, I can accept the manuscript for publishing.