<p>In recent years, the production of high quality</p><p>dried products in drying processes has begun to gain</p><p>importance. Optimization studies are carried out to</p><p>determine the change and loss of important quality</p><p>criteria in dried fruit. In this study, the effects of parameters</p><p>of drying mandarin slices, such as drying</p><p>temperature (60-80 °C), slice thickness (4-8 mm)</p><p>and drying air velocity (1-2 m/s), on some quality</p><p>properties were determined. A total of 17 drying, including</p><p>5 central points and 12 drying, were performed</p><p>according to Box-Behnken design. The parameters</p><p>of drying time (DT), ascorbic acid (AA)</p><p>and 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) were found</p><p>significant (p &lt;0.0001). The minimum value of the</p><p>DT and HMF parameter, and maximum value of AA</p><p>parameter were selected optimization conditions for</p><p>drying mandarin with hot air. The resulted optimization</p><p>parameters were drying temperature of 60 °C,</p><p>slice thickness of 4 mm, drying air velocity of 1.45</p><p>m / s. At these optimum parameter values; DT, AA</p><p>and HMF values were found as 594.12 minutes,</p><p>198.30 mg/100 g DM and 104.74 ppm, respectively.</p><p>It is thought that the optimum drying conditions determined</p><p>by this study will make contribution to the</p><p>production of dried mandarin.</p>