Dried kiwis are highly needed in food industries such as cereals, ice-cream, beverages and
supplemental products. In this paper, drying characteristics and product quality of hot air dried
kiwi slices were studied. Hot air drying of kiwi slices was investigated at drying temperature
ranged from 40°C to 60°C and slice thickness of 0.3 cm and 0.6 cm. Results showed that drying
of kiwi slices at higher drying temperature stimulates the drying rate, which leads to shorter
total drying time required. The drying kinetics of kiwi slices was best fitted by approximation
diffusion model. Increased in drying temperatures and slice thickness of kiwi enhanced the
effective moisture diffusivity (Deff). The highest Deff of the kiwi slices was recorded as 1.5681
x 10-8 m2
/min at slice thickness of 0.6 cm. In terms of quality analysis, kiwi slices dried at
temperature of 60°C with fastest drying rate retained most of the Total Phenolic Content (TPC)
in the dried sample. However, drying of kiwi slices at high drying temperature deteriorated the
vitamin C content of kiwi slices due to thermal degradation. Thinner kiwi slices could preserve
higher amount of TPC and vitamin C during the drying process, yet the best hot air drying
temperature for drying of kiwi slices could be relied on the consumers’ preference based on the
dried product quality as reported in the current work.