Osmotic dehydration is a novel technique for the production of shelfstable, nutritious and tasty products.Mango is a fruit which is highly relished in both raw and processed form. Various studies have indicated that pretreatment of fruits prior to osmotic dehydration improved the quality of the product. Hence an attempt was made to study the effect of various pre-treatments in the quality characteristics of osmo dried fruits. Two varieties of mango namely Bangalora, Pairiwere selected for the study. The fruits were washed, peeled , destoned and cut to slices. The fruit slices were given four pre-treatments viz., soaking the fruit slices in a solution of Citric acid, Citric acid + KMS, Ascorbic acid andAscorbic acid + KMS for 30 min. After pretreatment the fruit slices were soaked in the osmotic agent (sugar syrup) for 18 h, followed by dehydration, cooling and packing. The dried fruit slices were packed inMetallised polypropylene packs and subjected to shelf life studies for a period of 180 days. Upon analysis of the physiochemical qualities, microbial and sensory qualities of the fruit slices during storage, indicated that the osmo dried fruit slices pretreated with ascorbic acid +KMS and Citric acid + KMS retained highly acceptable qualities during storage.

Keywords: Mango, pretreatment, osmotic agent, dehydration