Abstract: This study aims to improve the drying efficiency and quality of a carrot during infrared drying. Two cutting methods (cross cutting and longitudinal cutting) were selected to treat the fresh produces, according to the anisotropic porous media of a carrot. The results showed under the surface temperature of 60 ℃, the cross-cutting carrots with the diameter of 40 mm and the thickness of 5 mm behaved the higher drying efficiency, compared with the longitudinal samples with the length of 35 m, the width of 35 mm, and the thickness of 5 mm. The 10% of moisture content was achieved about 5 hours for the treatment of cross cutting ones, indicating 1.5 hours less than that of longitudinal carrots. It suggested that the water in carrots was mainly transferred along the axial direction, whereas, the transport of water along the cross section cannot be found obviously during the drying process. A Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) was used to observe the middle and edge positions of dried samples, to further verify the microcosmic mechanism. The SEM images showed that a honeycomb microstructure was formed after the process of water loss, which was connected in the axial direction, but divided in the horizontal direction. Compared with the marginal part, the central part presented the higher voidage, lower curvature, larger coefficient of voidage, wider chamber space, and larger micropore radius. A Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) was also used to characterize the ultrastructure of the cells for the samples. TEM images showed that the dehydrated cells were mostly deposited around the cross section of the cell wall. These sediments were closely bound to the cell wall, and thereby to reduce the permeability of the cell wall in this part. Furthermore, sediments were not observed at the top or bottom of cell wall in the cross section, due mainly to the higher of porosity. These cells served as the skeletal materials for the wall of compartments. It infers that the water in the material flowed mainly through the voids, possibly due to the high resistance for water in the direction perpendicular to the cell wall. Moreover, Hyperspectral images revealed that the water content in the center was higher than that at the edge during the whole drying process, indicating that the loss rate of water in the two parts showed no significant differences at the same time. There was no obvious water migration in the lateral direction of materials, whereas, the central part of the zone with loose structure had a higher utilization rate of infrared energy. These data demonstrated that the different cutting methods (cross cutting and longitudinal cutting) can strongly affect the efficiency of drying. The findings can contribute to a microcosmic explanation for the infrared drying characteristics of carrot slices, and further provide a theoretical basis to improve the energy efficiency in infrared drying of carrots.