The objective of this research was to study the effect of drying conditions on drying kinetics and physical
qualities of pepper. The drying processes consisted of 1 stage hot air (HA) drying, 1 stage infrared (IR) drying, two
stages drying with microwave (MW) and HA sources and two stages drying with MW and IR sources. The initial moisture
content and final moisture content was fixed in ranges of 300-400% dry-basis and 12-16% dry-basis, respectively.
The results showed that the drying rate of pepper was in the falling drying rate period. For all drying processes, the
drying temperature relatively affected to rate of drying and drying time. In addition, the specific energy consumption
of all drying processes with a higher temperature was lower than drying with a lower temperature. At the same
drying temperature, the pepper dried with IR source has the highest drying rate and give the highest effective
diffusion coefficient value compared to the other drying processes. According to mathematical drying modeling using
non-linear regression analysis, the conclusion stated that the predicted values using the Page’s model was the best
fitting with experimental values for 1 stage IR drying, 1 stage HA drying and 2 stages drying with MW and IR sources.
Additionally, the simulated value using Logarithmic model had a good relation with exact values for 2 stages drying
with MW and HA sources. To determine the physical quality of dried pepper samples in terms of colorness values
(lightness (L*), redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) CIE-lab scale) and percentage of shrinkage, the conclusion stated that
shrinkage value of pepper dried with a lower temperature (low drying rate) was relatively high compared to a higher
temperature drying (high drying rate). The lightness value (L*) of dried pepper with low temperature tend to decrease
compared to drying with high temperature. And the HA drying had high decreasing lightness value (L*) compared to
the other drying processes and drying temperature had insignificant effect to sensory evaluation (p