Consumer panelists were recruited via advertisements in
the local community newspapers and approaches to community
groups. To qualify, participants had to be familiar
with, and consume fruit-filled snack bars and be over the
age of 16 years. Self-reported consumption ranged from
several per day to several per month for approximately 80%
of the consumers surveyed, with the remainder reporting
consumption several times per year. Sample evaluation
panels for the three storage temperature regimes were run
as separate trials beginning with the bars stored at 30C
(n = 103 consumers) and then alternating panels for bars
stored at 25 and 20C. Consumers were permitted to attend
one evaluation panel only, and increasing difficulty in
recruiting consumers resulted in final panel sizes of 68 and
72 consumers evaluating the bars stored at 20 and 25C,
respectively. Basic demographic data for the consumer
assessors are presented in Table 3. Samples were thawed on
the morning of the day they were required. Approximately,
10 mm was trimmed from the short ends of the bars to
remove the more cooked portions and the resulting strip
was cut in half longitudinally. The two strips were cut laterally
into three pieces of approximately 22 mm, giving a total