In this study, artificial neural networks (ANNs) was utilized for modeling and the prediction of moisture content (MC) of garlic during drying. The application of a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network entitled feed forward back propagation (FFBP) was used. The important parameters such as air drying temperature (50, 60 and 70°C), slice thickness (2, 3 and 4 mm) and time (min) were considered as the input parameters, and moisture content as the output for the artificial neural network. Experimental data obtained from a thin-layer drying process were used testing the network. The optimal topology was 3-25-5-1 with LM algorithm and TANSIG threshold function for layers. With this optimized network, R2 and mean relative error were 0.9923 and 9.67 %, respectively. The MC (or MR) of garlic could be predicted by ANN method, with less mean relative error (MRE) and more determination coefficient compared to the mathematical model (Weibull model).
