War and disaster affected 2 billion people in the 1990s, and those individuals requiring food and humanitarian assistance tripled since the mid-1980s. In 2001, aid recipients stood at nearly 34 million, of which 13.7 million were refugees and 20.3 million were forced to leave their homes. In response to the increasing number of disasters, including natural and manmade and complexicity of humanitarian emergencies, more food relief operations, are required. The United States Agency create specifications for an Emergency Ration Bar (ERB), also called an Emergency Food Product (EFP). In general, three difficulties have been outlined in relation to emergency food aid: (1) the quantity of rations provided, resulting in serious health consequences; (2) problems with ration quality, yielding undernourished emergency victims; and (3) problems coordinating food aid with healthcare, and livelihood needs caused by the isolation of food aid from other contributions required to avoid malnutrition. Five components were considered important in developing a succscful EFP. Namely, the EFP must be (1) safe, (2) palatable, (3) easy to deliver, (4) easy to use and (5) nutritionally rich. The EFP should provid the required energy (kcal), protein, vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients required for survival of human being during this short timespan. Microbiological safety, nutritional value maintenance, and oxidative stability are the major features for a product with extended shelf life under adverse conditions. All of these characteristics are influenced by water content and water activity (a w ). In addition the sensory quality of the emergency bar must be acceptable in many cultures. To minimize micribiological spoilage, nutrient degradation and oxidation, the moisture content of the bar should be below 9.5% with a w of no more than 0.6. Ideally, the
