products. TPS materials, based solely on starch, are highly moisture
sensitive and have rather limited mechanical properties [2–10].
Furthermore, high viscosity and poor flow properties of starchbased materials present difficulties during injection molding; typical process for producing synthetic thermoplastic polymers.
Therefore, the processing techniques for TPS are mainly limited
to compression molding and extrusion [2,3,5–10]. In order to process TPS using injection molding technique, a polymer blend
between natural TPS and synthetic thermoplastic is still necessary.
New approach to solve the limitations of TPS materials is to use
a natural gelling agent. Carrageenan is one of natural gelling agents
widely used in food industries. Carrageenan is a polysaccharidebased and water-soluble polymer with a linear chain of partially
sulphated galactans, which represent high potentiality as filmforming materials. The sulphated polysaccharide is extracted from
the cell walls of various red seaweeds (Phodophyceae) [11]. Carrageenan has been blended with other natural polymers for producing edible and biodegradable films [12–14]. It was reported that,
without plasticizer, carrageenan improved tensile properties of
the sodium caseinate film, although water vapor permeability values increased [12]. However, at low content of plasticizer, carrageenan promoted stiffness and reduce water vapor permeability
of the sodium caseinate film [12]. Mechanical and rheological