Drying is an essential process in the preservation of agricultural products. Various drying methods are employed to dry different
agricultural products. Care must be taken in choosing the drying system. Study comparing traditional drying and other drying methods for
the reduction of the drying time and to a significant improvement of the product quality in terms of color texture and taste. Reduces the
possibilities, the contamination by insects and microorganisms so that product is prevented. An experimental study was performed to
determine the drying characteristics of okra using hot air dryer. For the hot air drying, the test samples were dried in a laboratory scale hot
air dryer at a constant air velocity of 1 m/s and air temperature in the range of 40–90 . Drying characteristics of okra slices were
investigated in a hot air dryer for a temperature range 60 to 90°C at constant air velocity 1.0 m/s. Results indicated that drying took place
in the falling rate period. The sample dried at 40°C was found better in color texture and taste as compared to the samples obtained at 60
and 90°C.
The drying data were fitted to different drying models. The performance of these models was investigated by comparing the
determination of coefficient, reduced chi-square and root mean square error between the observed and predicted moisture ratios.
Keywords: Drying, product quality, moisture content, hot air dryer, mathematical model, air velocity .