This paper presents the application of Taguchi method in optimizing the drying parameters of bird's eye chili in a fluidized bed dryer. The drying parameters studied were bed depths, air velocities, operating temperatures and drying times. The standard L(18) orthogonal array was used to accommodate the three factors of drying parameters. The drying experiments were conducted in a fluidized bed dryer at bed depths of 2 cm and 4 cm. The air velocities were varied at 0.85 m/s, 0.97 m/s and 1.09 m/s. The operating temperature is set between 50 degrees C and 70 degrees C at 10 degrees C interval. Meanwhile, the drying times were tested from 40 min to 120 min at 40 min interval. The results showed that the moisture contents and the drying rate were significantly controlled by the drying time. Finally, it was found that the optimum operating condition for the drying parameters were obtained at the bed depth of 2 cm, air velocity of 1.09 m/s and operating temperature of 70 degrees C. The same result was also obtained when using OFAT (one factor at a time) method. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.