Preparation of enzyme-containing beads

Claim 1

A process for manufacturing free-flowing substantially dust-free, substantially spherical, enzyme-containing beads consisting essentially of a water dispersible solid, fusible, substantially anhydrous, nonionic detergent binder having a melting point up to about 60° C., having dispersed therein an enzyme concentrate consisting essentially of proteolytic enzyme, said binder having a hydrophilic polyethylene oxide chain of 6 to 84 ethylene oxide units, the concentration of the proteolytic enzyme in said beads being sufficient so that the beads contain about 0.1 to 5 Anson units per gram, with substantially all of said beads passing through a 10 mesh U.S. Standard Sieve Series screen and at most about 11.2% of said beads passing through a 100 mesh U.S. Standard Sieve Series screen, which comprises blending a powdered concentrate of said enzyme with said binder in molten form and spraying droplets of said blend through a spray nozzle into cool air in a cooling tower to solidify said droplets and form said beads.