The fracture strain of mixed gels at 50 and 100 mM NaCl did not
change significantly (but showed a slight increase at 50 mM NaCl
with 0.2% carrageenan) as the network evolved from homogenous to
phase separated either with protein continuous or bicontinuous
structures. However, fracture strain decreased significantly, to
values less than one, when the structure shifted to carrageenan
continuous. At higher salt concentration (250 mM NaCl), the
particulate WPI gel had a phase separated microstructure with
lower fracture strain. The addition of k-carrageenan did not significantly
alter the deformability of particulate gels. Manipulating the
microstructure with proteinepolysaccharide interactions resulted
in the range of fracture strains changing from 0.7 to 2.0 (Fig. 4).