Abstract Nutri-bars were prepared (110 g) using dates (64 g), dried apricots (16 g), cheddar cheese (8 g), whey protein isolate (12 g) and roasted-chickpea flour (10 g). Bars were prepared for Pakistani-athletes based on their calories and protein requirement (3500-3925 kcals/day, 1.4-1.8 g/kg body weight). Efficacy trials were performed (1, 15 and 30 days) to evaluate the effect of nutri-bars on blood serum profile, stamina building and body-composition. Results showed that hepatic-indexes such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were decreased (p > 0.05) during experimental-period. At day 30, ALT (6.8%), AST (1%) and ALP (0.4%) indicates the inhibitory effect of nutri-bar on the pathological serum-profile of athletes while significant increase (p > 0.05) was observed in total-protein (0.52%). Liver injury-indexes lactate dehydrogenase, Creatine kinase, total-cholesterol and total-glycerides showed a significant increase (p > 0.05) while low-density-lipoprotein and high-density-lipoprotein were decreased (p > 0.05). Effect of nutri-bar on body composition showed increase (p > 0.05) in body weight (kg) and body-mass index (BMI (kg/m2). In the twelve-minutes running test, distance covered by athletes (p < 0.05) increased after 30 days as compared to day 1. The study revealed the significant (p < 0.05) effect of nutri-bar in developing the stamina building of Pakistani-athletes while the effect on the blood-serum profile was non-significant.

Abstract Six protein energy-bars (B1-B6) were prepared for Pakistani-athletes using dates, dried apricots, Cheddar-cheese and whey-protein isolate. Bars B1-B3 contained 5 g Cheddar-cheese and 13 g whey-protein isolate while quantity of dates were 74, 68 and 65 g and apricots 8, 14 and 17 g respectively. Bars B4-B6 contained 8g Cheddar-cheese and 12 g whey protein isolate while dates and apricots were same as in bars B1-B3. Bars were sealed in aluminium foil, stored at 20 ± 5 °C for 45 days to evaluate their sensory, compositional, physicochemical, microbial, textural and antioxidant properties. All bars have good sensory attributes except B6 that showed (p < 0.05) lower acceptability. The pH, water activity and microbial count decreased (p < 0.05) in all the bars. Maximum hardness was noticed in bar B1 and lowest in B6 while highest firmness was recorded in B2 and lowest in B6. The increase (p < 0.05) of total phenolic content was noticed in B6 and the highest increase of total flavonoid content was estimated in B2 at day 45, while B5 showed the highest antioxidant-activity on the 30th day afterwards a decline was observed in all the bars. Study revealed that these bars have good sensory attributes, physical characteristics and shelf-stability and could be a healthy snack for athletes.