Meet Dr. Abigail Thiel

What sparked your interest in STEM and specifically in food science?

I’ve always, from a young age, really liked science and was good at it. But when I got to high school and started university, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do a science major, but there seemed like a lot of options, and I didn’t really understand which one would be right for me. I had a moment of panic when I was a freshman at university. I was in engineering school, and I thought, “I don't think this is right for me, but I don’t know where I’m supposed to be. So, I looked through every science major at the university, and for the first time, that is when I saw food science. I had no idea it existed, but I was already at this university that had this major, so I just started to try and learn everything about it. It actually was a perfect fit! It was just a lucky coincidence that I found food science.

What was your experience like studying food science in college?

I went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison. They have a food science department there, and during my bachelor’s degree, those four years were the best four years of my life. I felt super prepared because I knew all the professors. Food science is usually a very small major. I was in what they call a “big class”: my year had 40 students, and that was large for them. Our classes are very small, so you know all your professors. That’s nice because they have a huge network, so they help you find internships and jobs. You can just drop by their office for homework help.

So for me, I was at a very large university, but my food science community was very, very small. You meet people that you stay in contact with for the rest of your life.

Can you tell us about your specialty within food science?

My bachelor’s degree is in food science in general, but my PhD is actually in ice cream. Now I’m a bit more general and work on all dairy products.

I grew up in the US, and now, I’m in the Netherlands. There’s a huge history here with dairy products. Dairy products were always very prevalent, and people have always eaten them. But now what we see is that sometimes rearing cows is actually taking a lot of energy. There might be a lot of emissions, so there’s this future proofing of the dairy industry happening. People are looking at very different technologies. How sustainable are dairy foods? Are we able to get dairy foods a different way, like using fermentation? You would think dairy foods are very old school, but there are a lot of changes happening right now.

How does food culture differ between the US and the Netherlands?

There are a lot of differences in food between the Netherlands and the United States. In the US, food generally tends to be bigger, brighter, and sweeter. Everything in the Netherlands is just a bit more dialed back, and they don’t use as much food coloring. In fact, you can’t use some of the same food colorings legally, and just everything is smaller portion sizes. In the US, I feel like Americans really like to make things sparklier and bigger, and the Dutch aren’t really attracted to that.

I’ve also noticed they have very different grocery shopping habits. In the US, I would go grocery shopping once a week, fill up my car, and then I’m good. But Dutch people might bike to the grocery store every day after work and just pick up what they need for dinner that night. So it’s much smaller grocery trips, but much more frequently.

I would say the US is, food wise and technology wise, way more lenient than the Netherlands or the whole EU. The US already has bioengineered ingredients and genetically engineered ingredients on the market, whereas anything like that is illegal in all of the EU. They’re trying to regulate it, or trying to make some of it legal, but it just takes forever because it’s not just the Netherlands’ say. They’re part of the European Union, so all these countries have to align whereas the US is a bit more agile and can be a bit more ahead of the game since they only worry about themselves.

What is a common misconception people have about food science?

Usually, I feel like a misconception is that all food scientists are bad because in the US, we have a lot of obesity problems. People are always saying, “Why are food scientists making potato chips and candy bars?” But I think food science is like any tool. It can be used for good and it can be used for evil. And actually, food scientists do a lot of work for good and allow food to be produced on a mass scale for a relatively cheaper price point than a lot of other countries are used to.

I think another misconception is that people don’t understand how much science is behind their food. They don’t understand that food is always changing. That’s why it has a certain shelf life. That’s why it goes bad, and that’s why we need food scientists to regulate our food chain to make sure that it’s safe.

What are some important considerations when developing a new food product?

The number one thing you have to think of with a new food product is always safety. Safety is the highest priority for any food scientist. You want to think if there is any microorganism that could grow and make people sick and if there is any allergen that is going to harm someone. You also have to then think about who will buy it and if the item attract a certain amount of consumers. Finally, you want to think about shelf life and if it could sit at a grocery store for a day, a week, or months, and what it would look like if a consumer threw it into their cupboard and forgot about it for a couple of months. It’s not super simple. There’s a lot of different things that go into the foods that you see in the grocery store.

Can you tell us about one of the projects you’re working on?

The most interesting project I’m working on is trying to use yeast cells to make milk proteins instead of using a cow, which is what we normally do. The idea behind this is that there are some sustainability issues behind raising a lot of cows since Earth has limited resources. What we’re trying to do is basically provide the directions that a cow has to make a protein called casein, which is in all dairy products. We want to give those directions to the yeast cells and see if the yeast cells can make the same protein. The ultimate goal is to make dairy products more sustainable in the future.

Could you describe a typical day in your life?

Because I teach food science students, my day would be different from a food scientist at a food company. In the morning, I might be giving some lectures. I teach undergraduate students and masters students in classes like Dairy Chemistry or Dairy Science. In the Netherlands, which is quite different from the States, the lectures for a class are 40 minutes, followed by a 10 minute break, then 40 minutes more of lecture. It’s heavy duty lectures. So, I’ll probably spend most of my morning lecturing, answering questions, and staying after class.

We might have a lab after that, so I’m teaching a laboratory course where the students make their own yogurt, and then we test things like how much lactose or fat is in it, and are the microbe numbers increasing or decreasing?

Then after lunch, I can switch gears and get into research. Part of my role is being a researcher in the Dairy Group. We have projects on anything from cows milk, which is pretty normal, but also goat milk, human milk, and that yeast-made milk I mentioned before. Research-wise, I will do some reading of journal articles and some writing up articles. I also supervise masters students’ meetings to get updated on what they’re doing, seeing what’s working and what’s not. I’ll also probably have a couple hours to go into the lab myself and run experiments. By that time, it’s probably time to go home.

What is one thing you wish someone had told you before you became a food scientist?

My biggest wish would be for people to know about food science when they’re younger. For me, I was lost for a very long time on what I want to do with my life. Food science, at least for me, was perfect, because it’s a mixture of all the other sciences. It requires chemistry, biology, and physics—I liked it because I didn’t have to choose. As a food scientist, I get all the different sciences in something that is super relatable…because we all eat food.

What resources would you recommend for students to learn more about food science?

One of my friends from my PhD wrote a really nice book called 150 Food Science Questions Answered. Each page has a different fun fact, so it’s very relatable and very easy to read. There’s a podcast called My Food Job Rocks that features interviews of different people in the food industry. I also have a YouTube channel called ‘Abbey the Food Scientist’ where I talk about food careers or just fun facts that I think are interesting.

What advancements in food science do you hope to see in the future?

So much is happening in the food space right now. As I’ve said, one of my projects is using yeast to make other food products. That’s called precision fermentation, and it’s being used in a lot of different ways. A lot of food companies are being pushed to be more sustainable. There’s talk of even having something on a food package that grades how sustainable something is. There’s molecular farming, which is using plant cells to produce animal products.

The food industry right now is going through this huge technological advancement where we’re trying to balance all the limitations of Earth and having to feed more and more people on the planet each year. It’s a very interesting time.

Learn More:

• Dr. Thiel’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsb26ITnYA28h6FebnuzcWA
• Dr. Thiel’s blog: https://abbeythiel.medium.com
• 150 Food Science Questions Answered by Bryan Le: https://www.amazon.com/150-Food-Science-Questions-Answered/dp/1646118332
• My Food Job Rocks Podcast: https://myfoodjobrocks.com/