Spray drying is a well-established and widely used method for transforming a wide range of liquid food products into powder form. Stickiness is the limitation in spray drying of different sugar and acid-rich food products. To minimize this problem process and material science based approaches are in place. However, these remedies have their own drawbacks. Surface modification of droplets/particles is a novel way to minimize stickiness. It is timely that the research efforts on surface modification of droplets/particles be reviewed. Therefore, this review highlights the recent research dealing with surface modification of emulsions and spray dried powders. The theoretical foundation, mechanisms and methods used to achieve surface modification of food and emulsion powders are highlighted. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.