Background. Foam mat drying can be considered a simple and economically effective way compared to modern drying methods to produce powdered foods. Artemia biomass contains high nutritional content but was previously only used as food for aquatic animals.

Materials and methods. This research aimed to use Artemia biomass as human food, with the foam drying technique implemented. Artemia foam was dried at different temperatures (65–80°C), with four common drying models applied.

Results. Among the applicable models, the Logarithmic model was chosen as the most suitable model to describe and explain the drying process of Artemia powder (the highest R², the lowest root mean square error and χ², respectively, are 91.7–97.59%, 0.0619–0.0861 and 0.0049–0.0111). The sample reached a moisture content of about 4% to 5% in 2, 2.5, 3 and 3.5 hours when drying at gradually decreasing temperatures from 80°C, 75°C, 70°C and 65°C, respectively. The drying rate was determined by temperature, and the effective moisture diffusivity values (D_eff) were calculated in the range of 9.285×10^–12 m²/s to 1.065×10^–11 m²/s, from Fick’s diffusion model. The activation energy value E_a was determined to be 26.94 kJ/mol according to the Arrhenius relationship.

Conclusion. The sample was dried at 75°C for 2.5 hours and this temperature was chosen due to the short drying time, high nutrient content and bright colour. Artemia powder samples after drying had a low moisture content and an aw value of 4.46% and 0.22, respectively. High protein content was determined (79.93%) in the foam-dried Artemia powder. In addition, lipid content, carbohydrate, ash and water absorption capacity were also analysed (1.75%, 6.31%, 6.17% and 298.81, respectively).

Keywords: foam-mat drying, Artemia, drying rate, mathematical modelling, quality