The objective of this work was to determine the relationship between moisture content and shrinkage factor of osmotically dehydrated sardine sheets. Dehydration was performed according to a 5 x 5 x 7 factorial design where the temperature, concentration and dehydration time were 30, 32, 34, 36 and 38 degreesC, 15%, 18%, 21%, 24%, and 27% NaCl, and 20, 40, 60, 120, 180 and 240 min, respectively. The shrinkage factor in each sardine sheet was calculated according to the Viberg et al. [J. Food Eng. 35 (1998) 135] equation. Linear simple regression was used to fit the database to the model of the shrinkage factor as a function of moisture content. The models as fitted explained the 82.54-95.71% of the variability in the shrinkage factor as a function of moisture content and, the 90-99% of the variability in the shrinkage factor as a function of dimensionless moisture content at the 95% confidence level. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.