According to titration results, HB0.128, corresponded to the minimal amount of CaCl2 that was required for neutralizing the carboxyl-site covalent bonds; namely, 0.128 g of CaCl2(0.046 gCaþ2) per gram of SA. Excess of CaCl2 induced inter-molecular ionic bounds formed by calcium ions between polymeric chains during crosslinking of SA molecules. It has been suggested that the cross-linking with the G residues of G-blocks forms an egg-box structure,which controls the effective crosslinking strength and the me-chanical properties of alginate gels (Smidsrod&Skjak-Braek,1990).Table 1 presents the textural properties of the HBCA as function of calcium content. Addition of calcium between 0.128 and 1.28 g of CaCl2 per gram of SA produced significantly smaller diameter of the beads induced by shrinkage due to strong crosslinking between SA molecules, and higher sphericity. However further increases in CaCl2 concentration did not had a signifycant effect on beads diameter or sphericity. On the other hand, the hardness, cohesive-ness and springiness tended to increase as the calcium content was increased. In particular, increased cohesiveness and springiness areimportant for bead stability under handling (e.g., extrusion). HB 6.4 and HB 12.8exhibited the highest textural characteristic values,which were non-significantly different. Thus, a RSA/CaCl2ratio of 1/6.4 was chosen for the formulation of the HBCA/TS variations. This suggests that the addition of about 50e100 fold-times the mini-mum CaCl2required for intra molecular bonding could lead to theformation of intermolecular bonds between alginate molecules,resulting in enhanced textural properties.