The moisture content versus time curves for hot air drying of banana samples as influenced by thickness are shown in Fig. 2. Obviously, as the thickness of the sample increased, the time required to achieve a certain moisture content increased. For example, the drying times for reaching about 0.1 kg H2O/kg dry solids moisture content of 4.3, 7.4 and 14 mm thick samples were about 482, 610 and 777 min respectively at 60°C air temperature. These results were in agreement with previous literature studies Yusheng and Poulsen, 1988, Madamba et al., 1996 and Maskan and Ibanoglu, 1998. The drying rate was calculated at different times and plotted against average moisture content as shown in Fig. 3. A constant rate period was not observed in hot air drying of banana samples at 60°C. Hence, the entire drying process for the samples occurred in the range of falling rate period in this study. However, it might be possible to have a short constant rate period using lower temperatures such as 40–50°C.