PROCESS FOR PRODUCING A PARTICULATE COMPOSITION COMPRISING CRYSTALLINE ALPHA, ALPHA-TREHALOSE DI-HYDRATE

An object of the present invention is to provide a process for enabling the production of a particulate composition containing crystalline trehalose dihydrate in a higher production yield against starch through consistent steps by using starch as a material. The above object is solved by providing a process for producing a particulate composition containing crystalline a,a-trehalose dihydrate which comprises a,a-trehalose in an amount of 98.0% by weight or more, on a dry solid basis, characterized in that it comprises the steps of allowing to act on liquefied starch an a-glycosyltrehalose-forming enzyme derived from a microorganism of the genus Arthrobacter and a trehalose-releasing enzyme derived from a microorganism of the genus Arthrobacter along with a starch debranching enzyme and a cyclomaltodextrin glucanotransferase; allowing glucoamylase to act on the resulting mixture to obtain a saccharide solution containing a,a-trehalose; precipitating crystalline a, a-trehalose dihydrate from the above saccharide solution; collecting the precipitated crystalline a,a-trehalose dihydrate by a centrifuge; and ageing and drying the collected crystals; wherein a natural or recombinant cyclomaltodextrin glucanotransferase derived from a microorganism of the genus Paenibacillus or a mutant enzyme thereof is used as the cyclomaltodextrin glucanotransferase to increase the a,a-trehalose content in the saccharide solution to over 86. 0.% by weight, on a dry solid basis, without passing through a fractionation step by column chromatography.