Abstract: Red-fleshed apples have a unique flavor and high contents of anthocyanins and polyphenols as well as a high food value. Using a hot-air convective dryer, red-fleshed apples grown in Xinjiang was processed into apple powder for the purpose of investigating the effect of drying temperature (40–80 ℃) on physiochemical properties, sensory characteristics, nutritional components and antioxidant properties of apple powder. The results showed that low temperature long time (40 ℃, 210 min) and high temperature short time (80 ℃, 90 min) drying caused losses of nutritional components, sensory quality and antioxidant activity. On the other hand, moderate drying temperature and time (50 ℃, 180 min) better maintained the color, solubility, polyphenol content and antioxidant activity of apples. Overall, the optimal drying temperature to obtain the best quality of apple powder was determined to be 50 ℃.

Key words: red-fleshed apple, hot-air convective drying, sensory evaluation, antioxidant activity