Color is one of the most important quality parameters of tomato products. Changes in tomato color for different dehydration conditions were measured and used as indicators of product quality and process performance. Darkening intensity can be quantified using the CIELAB L* color parameter. Shi et al. (1999) observed severe tomato darkening (33.3%) occurring after a 90 C drying process. Kerkhofs et al. (2005) reported a 26.7% darkening for tomato drying at 42 C and 1.5 m s1. On the other hand, in our study, a maximum darkening (9.7%) was obtained for the drying process at 50 C, 1.2 m s1 with no use of tray rotation (Table 2). Thus, only mild tomato darkening occurred during the experiments performed in this study.