<![CDATA[This study quantified the effects of coconut-meat slice dimension, hot-air velocity, and drying time on moisture reduction in a modified tray dryer. Mature coconut meat was cut to a constant thickness of 1.2 cm with planar dimensions of 2 × 2, 3 × 3, 4 × 4, 5 × 5, or 6 × 6 cm. A completely randomized 5 × 2 × 4 factorial design was used at 55 °C, with air-velocity setpoints of 5 and 30 m/s and drying times of 2, 4, 6, and 8 h. Each treatment comprised three independent tray runs, and each run was analyzed in triplicate. Initial moisture content was 51.35 ± 0.25% wet basis. Three-way factorial ANOVA showed significant main effects of slice dimension, air velocity, and drying time (p < 0.001). Dimension × velocity (p = 0.049) and velocity × time (p = 0.008) interactions were also significant, whereas the three-way interaction was not (p = 0.743). The highest observed moisture reduction, 30.91 ± 0.16%, occurred in 1.2 × 2 × 2 cm slices dried at the 30 m/s setpoint for 8 h, corresponding to 35.48 ± 0.24% final moisture. The results demonstrate statistically distinct effects of geometry, airflow, and exposure time, but the final moisture remained too high for a finished desiccated-coconut claim. Additional drying and quality measurements are therefore required.]]>
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