Powdered milk was first produced in France by Antoine Augustin Parmentier (1737-1813) in 1805. The first patent for producing dried milk powder was granted in England in 1855. However, because sodium carbonate was added to the fresh milk, it was not pure milk powder. After that mixture was evaporated, the resulting dough was mixed with cane sugar, dried, and ground into a powder. Milk was first evaporated in open pans, then later in a vacuum process. Malted milk was developed in 1883. A powder mixture consisting of whole milk, whole wheat, and barley malt, malted milk appeared on the market in 1887 and became quite popular.

Pure dried milk made its first appearance in 1898 in the United States. Several methods of roller-drying milk were patented around this same time. Spray dryers came next. Use of powdered milk increased gradually as improvements in drying methods and packaging gradually yielded a high-quality product. Today powdered milk is made by evaporating some of the water from fluid milk, then spraying the milk in a drying chamber.