The individual and combined effects of physical, physico chemical and compositive factors on the Maillard reaction were studied by the application of the response surface methodology. In particular, the development of the Maillard reaction in D-glucose, D-fructose, glycine and L-glutamic acid model solutions was followed by measuring the changes in absorbance at 294 and 420 nm and the headspace CO2 concentration. Besides confirming results already known, the response surfaced methodology resulted to be useful in pointing out some almost unknown aspects, such as the effect of the interaction of temperature and pH on the formation of Maillard reaction intermediates.