Valorizing Fruit and Vegetable Waste: The Untapped Potential for Entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa—A Systematic Review

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The topic that the authors deal with in the paper is of great interest to society as a whole, since on the one hand we have large losses of food and at the same time there are many starving people in the world.

It would be good for the concept of the paper if the authors would think about defining research objectives and hypotheses. It is also suggested that the authors pay special attention to the crops that grow in Africa. In addition, they should consider the experiences of other countries with waste processing, because the proposal to burn waste or food waste is something that has no future.The concept of the work should be revised in the context of a clear definition of the objective, the elaboration of the topic and then the conclusions.

Comments on the Quality of English Language

This paper need improvements

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Review titled “Valorizing Fruit and Vegetable Waste: The Untapped Potential for Entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa - A Systematic Review” by Grace Okuthe aimed to select relevant research from the literature and synthesize the essential findings regarding food waste (FW) valorization as a resource for entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa. This review highlights the application of innovative technology in FW valorization, the types of FW fragments utilized, and their industrial applications. It explores the potential use of these techniques for entrepreneurship and the role of higher education institutions in FW optimization.

The presented work is well studied and well-articulated, the bibliographic analysis is quite in-depth but needs to be expanded and improved. The quality of the figures is relatively low and necessarily needs to be enhanced. The review requires extensive revisions before being accepted. In detail:

1)      Abstract (line 18). Define the acronym SSA

2)      Introduction - Figure 1. Improve graphics quality. Integrate with more general figures or diagrams: why did the author mention the mango?

3)      Introduction (line 60-64). Report the definition of FW according to European legislation as reported in the article by Benucci et al. "Natural colorants from vegetable food waste: Recovery, regulatory aspects, and stability—A review." Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 21.3 (2022): 2715-2737.

4)      Introduction (line 97). Define the acronym SSA

5)      Global perspectives of FW: quantities and challenges (line 155 and so on). Always report the acronym CE without specifying each time the term to which it refers.

6)      Global perspectives of FW: quantities and challenges(line 249). Correctly position references 64 and 55

7)      Figure 2, 3 and 4. Improve graphics quality.

8)      Regional case studies: innovative value-added products from FW – Table 1. The table caption is missing. It is mandatory to enter it.

9)      Table 1. Case study n.1 concerns tomato processing waste in the EU. It would be interesting if the author reported other examples in this regard. For example, in Lombardelli et al., a study is reported in which green and alternative methods were implemented for the sustainable recovery of carotenoids from unsold tomatoes in large-scale retail trade. See Lombardelli et al. "Tailored and synergistic enzyme-assisted extraction of carotenoid-containing chromoplasts from tomatoes." Food and Bioproducts Processing 121 (2020): 43-53.

10) Valorizing FW entrepreneurship opportunities in SSA. Review and correct the paragraph numbering of chapter 4.

11) Valorizing FW entrepreneurship opportunities in SSA (line 357). Write the formula of the compound correctly: Fe₃O₄

12) Barriers to the uptake of valorisation of FW as a business prospect. In this chapter, it would be appropriate for the author to integrate the discussion by also bringing attention to the green methods to be used for FW conversion. They are important opportunities from an economic, environmental and social point of view.

Author Response

Please see the attached document.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Although the author has considered the reviewer's comments, they have been insufficiently taken into account in the paper. This applies in particular to the aims, which are now defined but are not related to the work as a whole.

Author Response

Please so the attached file

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

 

 

The work was corrected by the authors following the indications provided.

Line 507: Correct the bibliographic reference. It does not match the one in the list of “References”

 

 

Author Response

See the attached document.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx