Osmotic dehydration can be employed as a single independent process or in combination with other processes such as different methods of drying, freezing, frying, etc. In this study osmo-dehydration is used as a pretreatment for producing dehydrated kiwifruit (either Hayward or Abbot cultivar) slices. To this end, the effects of operational variables of solution concentration (30%, 40% and 50%), bufferic agent, and temperature (20, 40 and 60°C) on dehydration efficiency were studied. Both osmosed and nonosmosed control samples were hot air dried.Dried products were analyzed in order to evaluate their textural and organoleptic properties. The results indicat that using osmotic solution can improve both textural and organoleptic properties of dried product. The best product was obtained while applying the operational conditions of: Csucrose 40%, Cbuffer 6%, T— 40°C and t— 120 minutes. A significant difference was observed between the two cultivars as regards the drying process.
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