A continuous process is described for preparing a powdered food product comprising adding a fat phase to an aqueous phase, to produce an emulsion, evaporating the aqueous phase in a plurality of evaporator effects and finally spray-drying the emulsion, the fat phase being added to the liquid aqueous phase and homogenised between two evaporator effects or between the last evaporator effect and the spray-drier. The process does not require storage of the emulsion upstream of the spray-drier and results in a microbiologically stable product, with minimum fat degradation. The emulsion is produced by measuring the density, the flow and optionally the temperature of the aqueous phase prior to the addition, as well as flow and optionally the density and/or the temperature of the fat phase prior to the addition, and feeding the combined measured values to a metering unit and metering the fat addition according to a predetermined ratio between fat phase and aqueous phase in the food product.