The prevention of the loss of flavor compounds during spray drying is one of the most important engineering techniques to obtain high quality powdery food products. In the present study, a droplet drying technique was used to evaluate the mechanism of the loss of hydrophobic liquid flavors from a droplet containing flavor emulsions in an aqueous mixture solution of gum arabic and maltodextrin. The effects of type of flavor, air temperature, the initial concentration of carrier solids and the stability of the emulsion on the retention of different kinds of flavors were investigated. The retention of flavor was markedly dependent on the type of flavor and the stability of emulsion, and retention could be correlated well with emulsion stability. A simple mathematical model of the loss of emulsified flavor during drying was proposed, based on a breakdown hypothesis of the emulsion droplet.