Interestingly, although the addition of proteins does appear to
influence the strength of the alginate films, it does not appear to affect
the elasticity of the films. In fact, there was no significant (Pb0.05)
difference in elongation at breaks between any of the films
(Table 1). The elongation break values range from 81.6±4.4–95.0±
8.3%. These values are much higher than the values reported in the literature
for dry alginate–gelatin–WPI (12.6±3.2–29.4±5.3%) and dry
soy protein–alginate (15.5±0.9%) films (Shih, 1994; Wang et al.,
2010). One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that the
high water content in the ‘wet’ films is acting as a plasticizing agent
in the film. Plasticizing agents are known to increase the elongation
of films (daSilva et al., 2009; Yang & Paulson, 2000).