Gelation of iota-carrageenan and micellar casein mixtures under high hydrostatic pressure

Effects of high-pressure treatment (HPT) on the rheological parameters and gelation of iota-carrageenan (iota-Car) and mixtures of micellar casein (MC) and iota-Car have been investigated under neutral pH conditions. It was established that HPT showed no significant effect, in the presence or absence of ionic calcium, with or without initial thermal processing, on the rheology or gelation/melting temperatures of the pure iota-Car solution. However, in mixed systems containing varying concentrations of iota-Car (up to 1 wt %) and MC (up to 8 wt %), considerable changes were detected. At the higher molar ratios of MC to iota-Car, and especially at the higher pressures, the dispersions were not thermoreversible in gelation, presumably due to the strong interactions of disrupted casein micelles with iota-Car molecules, as well as due to the formation of a dominant proteinaceous network at higher concentrations of MC. The associative protein-polysaccharide interactions in these systems are highly dependent on the ionic calcium content.