A process for depleting epoxide species in a crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition, the process comprising the following steps: (a) providing a crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition having a pH of 6.5 to 7.5, the polysaccharide being crosslinked with a bifunctional or multifunctional epoxide crosslinker, wherein said composition comprises epoxide species resulting from the polysaccharide crosslinking process, (b) subjecting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition to one, two or three of sub-steps (i) to (iii): (i) exposing the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition to heat by a thermal treatment to effect thermal hydrolysis of epoxide functional groups of the epoxide species, the thermal treatment being carried out for 0.25 h to 18 h at a temperature of 40°C to 120°C, (ii) contacting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition directly or indirectly with a nucleophilic agent to effect ring-opening of epoxide functional groups of the epoxide species, the nucleophilic agent being a thiol nucleophile, and (iii) contacting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition indirectly with an absorbing agent, the absorbing agent being a solid state absorbing agent selected from the group consisting of charcoal, activated charcoal, zeolite, mordenite, and mixtures thereof, (c) dialyzing the crosslinked gel composition either concomitantly with and/or after said one or more sub-steps (i) to (iii) to obtain a crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition depleted in epoxide species. (a) providing a crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition having a pH of 6.5 to 7.5, the polysaccharide being crosslinked with a bifunctional or multifunctional epoxide crosslinker, wherein said composition comprises epoxide species resulting from the polysaccharide crosslinking process, (b) subjecting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition to one, two or three of sub-steps (i) to (iii): (i) exposing the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition to heat by a thermal treatment to effect thermal hydrolysis of epoxide functional groups of the epoxide species, the thermal treatment being carried out for 0.25 h to 18 h at a temperature of 40°C to 120°C, (ii) contacting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition directly or indirectly with a nucleophilic agent to effect ring-opening of epoxide functional groups of the epoxide species, the nucleophilic agent being a thiol nucleophile, and (iii) contacting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition indirectly with an absorbing agent, the absorbing agent being a solid state absorbing agent selected from the group consisting of charcoal, activated charcoal, zeolite, mordenite, and mixtures thereof, (i) exposing the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition to heat by a thermal treatment to effect thermal hydrolysis of epoxide functional groups of the epoxide species, the thermal treatment being carried out for 0.25 h to 18 h at a temperature of 40°C to 120°C, (ii) contacting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition directly or indirectly with a nucleophilic agent to effect ring-opening of epoxide functional groups of the epoxide species, the nucleophilic agent being a thiol nucleophile, and (iii) contacting the crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition indirectly with an absorbing agent, the absorbing agent being a solid state absorbing agent selected from the group consisting of charcoal, activated charcoal, zeolite, mordenite, and mixtures thereof, (c) dialyzing the crosslinked gel composition either concomitantly with and/or after said one or more sub-steps (i) to (iii) to obtain a crosslinked polysaccharide gel composition depleted in epoxide species. <EOS>