Shiraz University Iran Agricultural Research 1013-9885 35 2 2016 09 22 Influence of pre-treatment on the drying process of apricots 71 78 3800 10.22099/iar.2016.3800 EN K. JafariNaeimi Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, I. R. Iran R. Ahmadi Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, I. R. Iran M. DavariShamsabadi Department of Biosystems Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, I. R. Iran Journal Article 2014 05 27 Drying has been used for the preservation of fruits since ancient times. Dried apricot reduces the damages, weight and volume losses, packaging space, storage and handling costs. In this paper, the effects of hot air dryer on an Iranian apricot cultivar ”Noori” have been investigated. The experiment was conducted at three temperatures (30, 40 and 50^oC), three fruit thicknesses (5, 10 and 15 mm) and two pre-treatments (sulphur dioxide and water soluble sodium meta-bisulphite (Na₂S₂O₅)). Based on the analysis of variance, the effects of temperature, thickness, pre-treatment and their interactions on drying time were significant (P<1%). It was revealed that water soluble  reduced drying time more than sulphur dioxide. The data was fitted to eight different mathematical models. Page model was determined as the best one to explain thin layer drying of apricots by comparing the coefficient of correlation determination(R), chi-square ( ) and root mean square error (RMSE) between the observed and expected moisture ratios. https://iar.shirazu.ac.ir/article_3800_a53e7cad2ee2b88e7392d0d7caf48431.pdf