Heather Shewan

Over the past 10 years, Heather has developed knowledge of the relationship between food and ingredient structure and physical properties focused on dairy and other protein systems. This structure-property relationship has been evaluated for protein-based systems at surfaces, during confinement and in bulk systems. She has been part of a team developing a new rheological method to measure and interpret rheological behaviour of suspensions where the gap between rubbing surfaces is of the same order of magnitude as the particle diameter. Under these conditions, suspension rheology is a function of particle micromechanics. She has used model systems of polysaccharide particles to develop the relationship between particle and suspension microstructure, narrow gap rheology, tribology and sensory for non-interacting particles. The key outcomes from the project have allowed our long-term industry partner to move towards rational design of food products. Heather is now a senior research Fellow under Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator and will continue to work on structure-property relationships for a range of protein-based foods including gelatine, dairy and plant protein based foods.