Abstract:The effects of drying temperature, material load and airflow rate on hot-air drying characteristics of the moisture content and dehydrating rate of ginkgo fruit were investigated by applying self-made hot-air drying online testing device. Drying temperature, material load and airflow rate were the influence factors, and moisture content, dehydration rate, average energy consumption of drying process, protein retention rate and sensory quality of dried ginkgo were the experimental indices, and the relationships between the experimental indices and the influence factors were analyzed through the responsesurface analysis method and sub-stepping method. The quadratic regression mathematical models that described the relations between the experimental indices and the influence factors were established. The optimal combination of technological parameters for drying materials was obtained through conducting a multi-objective function optimization by function expected optimization. The hot air drying process of ginkgo is mainly concentrated in constant-speed phase and decelerated phase, and the optimal parameters are as follows: hot-air temperature of 68℃, airflow rate of 1.15m/s, and material load of 15.58kg/m2.Under these conditions, the energy consumption is 11.86kW·h/kg, the dehydration rate is 9.77%/h, protein retention rate is 90.30% and the sensory score is 8.57. The results can provide a theoretical basis for drying and industrialized production of ginkgo fruit.