Deacetylation of konjac glucomannan in the presence of kappa carrageenan results in the formation of a gel at temperatures above the melting temperature of kappa carrageenan and at concentrations much lower than expected for konjac glucomannan alone. It is suggested that this is a consequence of segregative association. On cooling kappa carrageenan helix formation is promoted by the presence of the konjac glucomannan as has been observed for non-deacetylated konjac glucomannan. The extent of segregatively induced self-association and the degree of subsequent association between the two biopolymers, following kappa carrageenan helix formation, increases with the degree of deacetylation of konjac glucomannan and hence the gel modulus increases with deacetylation both above and below the temperature where carrageeenan helix formation occurs.