To investigate if the carrageenans were partially hydrolyzed during the treatment with strong salt solutions or NaOH, the molecular weight was analyzed by HPSEC-RI/MALLS (Tab. 2). Most of the monocationic carrageenans showed a similar molecular weight than the unmodified samples, except for the calcium forms of KC1, IC1, and LC2. However, because the molecular weights of other calcium forms were unaltered, these changes could be derived from a selective precipitation due to the different ionic environment. Because the molecular weights were still high (491 -838 kDa), an influence on the IRI activity is highly unlikely: showed that a reduction of the molecular weight of κ-carrageenan from 1420 kDa to 262 kDa did not result in a decreased IRI activity. Altogether, the results from the HPSEC analysis demonstrated that the conditions during cation exchange do not lead to significant changes in the molecular weight of carrageenans. The alkaline conditions which were applied to remove -units from LC1 led to a decreased molecular weight from 923 kDa to 540 kDa.