**3. Results**

### *3.1. Physico-Chemical, Phytochemical, and Antioxidant Analysis*

The proximate composition of the major raw materials (Table 2) shows that TPP has the highest amount of protein, followed by FMF and PF. A similar trend was observed for fat, ash, and crude fiber content of the raw materials whereas the reverse trend was observed for total carbohydrate content, with potato flour having the highest and TPP having the lowest carbohydrate content.


**Table 2.** Physico-chemical and phytochemical composition of major raw materials.

Values are mean ± SD, n = 3; values within a row with different superscripts are significantly different (*p* ≤ 0.05).

FMF showed a total phenolic content (TPC) of 320 mg GAE/100 g, which is significantly higher than that of TPP (179.67 mg GAE/100 g) and PF (42.47 mg GAE/100 g). The DPPH radical scavenging activity also followed a similar trend. Amongst minerals, calcium and phosphorus were found in higher amounts in FMF whereas magnesium, sodium, potassium, iron, and zinc were more prominent in TPP. Potato flour had significantly lower amounts of the estimated minerals amongs<sup>t</sup> the raw materials.

Statistical analysis shows that the addition of TPP has a defined effect on the color values of the RTC-GF snacks (Figure 2). The control sample reported the highest L\* values which decreased successively with the increase in percentage of TPP. It was observed that the supplementation beyond 15% had no significant effect on the L\* values. The a\* values, which depict the redness of the product, show a significant difference (*p* ≤ 0.05) with a gradual increase. The addition of tomato pomace resulted in the decreased yellowness of the RTC-GF snack, which is reflected by lower b\* values but the supplementation beyond 15% exhibited no significant difference (*p* ≤ 0.05) in the b values. The hue angle ranged from 73.29◦ to 33.47◦ for T1 and T5, respectively, while the chroma values ranged from 22.40 to 18.53, where T3, T4, and T5 were not significantly different from each other (*p* ≤ 0.05).

**Figure 2.** Color Scores of Ready-to-cook Gluten-free Snacks.
