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The osmotic dehydration (DO) of European plum (Prunus domestica L.) cv. President combined with a final stage of hot-air drying (SAC) at 70°C to a final humidity of 20% wet basis was studied. The fresh fruits were pitted and cut into 8 wedges, and then immersed in sucrose solutions of different concentrations (C: 40, 50 and 60 º Brix) during different times (t: 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 min). The kinetics of the process was evaluated through monitoring the content of soluble solids (SS) and moisture (M), weight variation (WR), soluble solids gain (SG) and water loss (WL). The analysis of the variance (a = 0.05) showed the effect of t on WL and SG, as well as the influence of the interaction t´C on WR. Using the response surface methodology (RSM), the predictive polynomials of the main variables WL and SG were obtained. The optimization performed by means of desirability analysis applied to maximize WL determined the stationary points t=113 min, C=59.9 °Brix, exactly matching the optimum for SG maximization, thus defining the optimum conditions for maximum dehydration and incorporation of sugars that contribute to product conservation.