Author(s): Shruti Puri, Loveleen Kaur Sarao, Jahanavi Trehan and Ramanpreet Kaur

Abstract:
Functional foods, majorly snacks, have gained tremendous attention worldwide over the past few years due to the trend of healthy lifestyle. Snacks are one of the most popular conveniences, ready-to-eat, easy-to-carry, easy-to-store products consumed by all age groups. Snacks can be considered as a better vehicle for fortification and enrichment with chia seeds. In the present study, gram flour and chia seed flour were used to prepare composite wheat flour in order to improve the protein, crude fibre, fat content, and mineral content in snacks. Snacks were prepared from the gram flour and chia seed flour blends in the ratios of 50:0, 35:15, 25:25 and 15:35 respectively. Sensory quality and the acceptability scores were decreased with the increase in the level of chia seed flour. Snacks containing 50:0 (gram: chia) was acceptable in relation to the overall acceptability. There was a considerable increase in the fibre and mineral content in the snacks by adding chia flour. Therefore, the developed snacks indicated the commercial scope of manufacturing good quality snacks, which will be helpful for providing daily dietary requirement of protein, dietary fibre and other minerals.