4. Conclusions In the first part of this work, the impact of the degradation ki netics during drying of GR MYR and vc was analyzed theoretically and experimentally at two temperatures(40°Cand 50 c) for fresh and steam-blanched broccoli florets. The degradation rates were much smaller than predicted from kinetic data. especially for M In the second part of this work, an optimal drying trajectory for the inlet air temperature was developed to minimize the degradation of these nutritional compounds. Rep of the trajectory in temperature-moisture content state diagram showed that the strategies avoid temperature-moisture content regions with degradation rates or avoid a long residence time in that region According to the simulation of the optimized temperature trajec tory, the retention was predicted to be 83%,0% and 28% for GR. MYR and Ve respectively. However, the experimental retention was 101%, 55% and 85% for GR. MYR and vc respectively(average values The discrepancy between the experimental and simulation re- sults for both drying at constant temperature and drying with optimized trajectory, was explained by the different temperature physical states of the samples(intact sample versus grounded samples) and by the different heating treatments applied to mea sure the reaction kinetics for the simulations results. This finding temperature and moisture content. also suggests that besides also play an changes in the physical state that occur during d important role in the degradation of nutritional compounds during drying Furthermore, the experimental results confirmed that with the optimized drying trajectory, retention of healthy compounds can be improved compared to the drying at constant condi significantly tions(50 C). Despite a mismatch in the kinetic expressions and the behavior in the broccoli matrix this work shows that degradation using a mechanistic assisted optimization is a good approach for process design to improve the quality of high value food products Hereby the state diagram with degradation rates supports the un derstanding of the drying strategy