Fien De Witte
PhD Student
In this research Fien tries to close the gap between fat crystallization on nano-, meso- and microscale and fat functionality in food products on the macroscale.
Fien obtained her MSc degree in Bioscience Engineering: Food science and nutrition in 2019 from Ghent University. Shortly after graduating, she started as a teaching assistant at campus Schoonmeersen. In January 2020, she obtained a BOF scholarship and started her PhD on fat crystallization at the Food Structure & Function Research Group.
After finishing her master thesis about pralines, fat bloom, oil migration and compound chocolates, Fien continued researching the field of oils and fats. Her research now focusses on fat crystallization of palm oil, hydrogenated palm kernel stearin and milk fat. The goal of this research is to better understand fat crystallization following heterogeneous nucleation and to be able to correlate this crystallization on the nano-, meso-, micro-, and macroscale. For this research a highly innovative lab scale X-ray scattering device is used. This X-ray device offers possibilities to follow up fat nucleation, polymorphism, crystallization and network formation.