**Abstract**

This work used different mathematical models to describe the drying kinetics of osmodehydrated apple cubes (Granny Smith var.) with sucrose solution. The osmodehydration pre-treatment was carried out with different concentrations (40–60Brix) of sucrose solution, at 40°C, 10 g solution/g product and 1440 min. The dimensionless volume, water activity and drying kinetics of fresh (1.5 cm by side) and osmodehydrated apple cubes subjected to convective drying (50°C and 3.5 m/s) were investigated. Newton, Henderson and Pabis, Page, Weibull and Fick's second law models were used to describe drying curves. Using osmodehydration as a drying pre-treatment decreased the drying time and product shrinkage with respect to fresh product. Page's model was the best fit (R<sup>2</sup> > 0.948), followed by Weibull and Henderson and Pabis model (R2 > 0.907). The Newton model was not adequate to describe drying processes with high mass transfer rate (R<sup>2</sup> > 0.775). For the diffusive model, it is required to characterize the real dimensions of the product during the process to achieve a R<sup>2</sup> > 0.917. Effective water diffusivity of fresh and osmodehydrated apple was 6.77 <sup>10</sup><sup>10</sup> and 3.77 <sup>10</sup><sup>10</sup> <sup>m</sup><sup>2</sup> /s, respectively.

**Keywords:** convective drying, diffusivity, mass transfer, osmotic dehydration, sucrose solution
