The effects of feed strength, hydraulic residence time (HRT), and operational temperatures on soluble microbial product (SMP) production were investigated, to gain insights into the production mechanism. A carrier anaerobic baffled reactor (CABR) treating dilute wastewater was operated under a wide range of operational conditions, namely, feed strengths of 300-600 mg/L, HRTs of 9-18 h, and temperatures of 10–28°C. Generally, SMP production increased with increasing feed strength and decreasing temperature. At high temperature (28°C), SMP production increased with decreasing HRT. As the temperature was decreased to 18 and 10°C, the SMP production was at its peak for 12 h HRT. Therefore, temperature could be an important determinant of SMP production along with HRT. A higher SMP to soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) ratio was found at high temperature and long HRT because of complete volatile fatty acid degradation. SMP accounted for 50%-75% of the SCOD in the last chamber of the CABR. As a secondary metabolite, some SMP could be consumed at lower feed strength.