Impact of processing conditions and protein concentration on the assembly of carrageenan milk protein weak gels

The protein content shows only influence on the weak gel if the UHT temperature is 132 °C and above. This can be related to calcium release of casein micelles. On the other hand, the size of the protein clusters is limited by the carrageenan-to-protein ratio. To determine the influence of particles with non-specific interactions to the polysaccharide, a variation of the preheating step was done. Systems, where coiled carrageenan can compete with the whey proteins for the casein micelle surface, build a stronger composite network compared to systems with casein micelles already covered by whey protein complexes when carrageenan is hydrated. This indicates that the assembly of the composite weak gel is basically entropy driven but improved by calcium bridging and specific interactions between casein micelles and carrageenan.