The present pandemic situation has increased demand for functional foods that enhance all aged groups' people immunity against COVID-19. This factor has led to innovation in snack market because healthy and good quality snack products are lacking. In this study, attempt has been made to develop functional snack bar that is beneficial for malnourished population from various combinations of amaranth grain, oat, and banana peel powder. Among various combinations amaranth grain (60%), oats (25%) and banana peel powder (15%) was found better than other combinations in respect to organoleptic and nutritional quality. Oat and banana peel powder addition increased the contents of protein, mineral, β-glucan, dietary fibre, essential amino acid, phenolic, and antioxidant activity of functional snack bar. TGA analysis shows that active components present in it were stable even at high temperature which adds benefit to its functional property. Microbial studies of FSB revealed it could be stored up to 60 days without microbial contamination and acceptable by consumer. The cost of a functional snack bar was 9.57 per bar, which was less than market snack bar. This study showed that developed functional snack bar snack increases market's revenue and enables snack market to develop new type snack bar.

Onion is one of the most important vegetables used as a food ingredient and spice due to its flavor, aroma and pungency. Chemical composition of onion revealed that it contains vitamins, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, dietary fiber, some cysteine derivatives and phenolic compounds. It has many medicinal benefits like wound healing, growth-inhibition of microbial and tumor cells, reduction of cancer risk, protection against cardiovascular diseases and diabetes and anti-inflammatory properties. However, post harvest loss during storage remains a major challenge for food researchers. To prevent price hikes and increase the shelf life of onion, preservation is a crucial step. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of the sun, tray, vacuum and freeze-drying treatment on the nutritional, functional and sensory acceptability of onion powders. The result indicates that the nutritional, color, texture, rheological and rehydration ratio of freezedried onion powder were better than other drying processes. Volatile compounds retain in lyophilized onion powder. However, they may be readily lost during other drying processes. Based on the micro-structure analysis of onion powder, the freeze-dried powder was found intact and porous cell. There was no leak of solute concentration. It can be concluded that among all drying methods, freeze-drying is considered the best method to preserve onions in various form like powder, flakes and was well accepted by the sensory panel.