In 1295, Marco Polo reported that Mongolians boiled milk, skimmed off the fat that rose to the top to make butter and dried the defatted milk in the sun.

Now, nearly all the powdered milk produced these days for human consumption is spray dried. In spray drying, concentrated milk is sprayed into hot air, whereas foam-spray drying sends jet of hot air into concentrated milk.

The patent of spray drying was registered in 1872 in the United States. Percy described the principle of spray drying and he is considered to be inventor of spray drying technology.

The first industrial spray drying was installed in 1905 for US company by the name of Merril Soul. Rapid development of dairy industries, due to increased production of milk after World War II, brought significant improvement of milk spray driers.

Spray drying became more established during the mid 1900s and the advantages over roller drying were immediately evident in terms of the less destructive nature of thermal treatments involved.

Many inventions in the following years improved the technology of concentrated and dried dairy products.

One significant innovation in drying technology, economy and quality of the powdered products was a two stage drying, that is the instantisation method.

The dairy industry is the major food sector utilizing the spray drying technique in order to meet the ever increasing demand of dried milk products.