My name is Jenna Miller. I am a senior pursing a degree in Food Science as well as a minor in Pet Food Processing. I am getting the minor because of my love for my pets and animals in general. It allows me to include some animal science classes into my curriculum while still overlapping heavily with what I learn in my major classes.

Outside of research I am involved in the Food Science department through the Envoy program which hosts prospective students and gives them a student perspective of the program as well as life at Purdue. I am also serving as the secretary of the Food Science club, and am looking forward to planning events for the club throughout the upcoming school year. I am involved in my sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, as the Recruitment Foods Chair, meaning I am the head of a kitchen crew that organizes and prepares the snacks given out to hundreds of girls during formal recruitment.

My undergraduate research is in a laboratory that focuses on water-solid interactions in foods. My research specifically focuses on the the two most common synthetic forms of vitamin B1, thiamine mononitrate and thiamine chloride hydrochloride. These synthetic thiamine salt forms are commonly added to food and beverage products to both replace the vitamins lost in processing as well as to fortify food and beverages with additional thiamine content. However, thiamine is one of the most heat unstable vitamins. It is often destroyed during food processing and, in addition to heat, is also sensitive to alkali, oxygen, radiation, sulfites, and its food matrix. While loss of vitamin activity on degradation is obviously of concern, thiamine degradation also causes a major sensory impact with degradation products contributing potent odors and off-flavors to the food products and beverages in which they are contained. It is therefore very relevant to study the stability of thiamine, especially concerning storage conditions and its food or beverage matrix.

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