<![CDATA[The demand for instant seasonings made from natural ingredients continues to increase in line with the global clean-label trend. However, the production of instant seasonings faces challenges due to the degradation of thermolabile bioactive compounds during conventional drying processes, as well as the limited availability of data on foam mat drying kinetics. This study aimed to analyze the characteristics of moisture content changes and the drying kinetics of instant sayur asam seasoning produced using the foam mat drying method, as well as to evaluate their effects on the physicochemical quality of the final product, including yield, total soluble solids, water solubility index, water absorption index, and color profile, using varying concentrations of egg white powder (5, 10, and 15%) and maltodextrin (10, 15, and 20%) at a drying temperature of 60°C. The results showed that the drying process lasted 11–13 hours, producing a final moisture content of 5.54–7.28% and a yield of 16.61–36.80%. Increasing the concentrations of egg white powder and maltodextrin linearly reduced the moisture content and increased the yield. The Modified Page, Wang and Singh, and Logarithmic models were identified as the best-fitting drying kinetic models. The highest water solubility index and the lowest water absorption index were obtained with the treatment containing 5% egg white powder and 20% maltodextrin (0.69 g/g and 0.62 g/g, respectively), while increasing the concentrations of both ingredients produced a lighter color (L* 70.72–76.09) with lower redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) values. Foam mat drying has the potential to serve as an efficient drying alternative for the production of functional instant seasonings based on local ingredients, particularly instant sayur asam seasoning.]]>
