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Air-drying of banana slabs has been investigated and the influence of experimental
parameters such as temperature, relative humidity and slab thickness has been studied.
This was in part re-investigated because of inconsistencies in previous studies,
particularly in relation to derived water diffusion coefficients. In addition, it is
shown that harvest season and hence initial moisture content has a very marked
influence on the drying kinetics. By contrast banana maturity
(ripeness) has little influence on the kinetics despite there being significant
differences in morphology and chemical composition between green and ripe
bananas. The effect of these two variables on the drying kinetics has not previously
been studied.