Christine Yung Hung
Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics
Department of Food technology, Safety and Health
Ghent University
Coupure links 653
9000 Ghent, Belgium
yung.hung@ugent.be
Bio
Prof. Christine Yung Hung is affiliated with both the Department of Agricultural Economics and Department of Food technology, Safety and Health. Her work focuses on the intersection of behavioural economics, public health nutrition and agro-food marketing. She is also a Behavioural Science and Education Specialist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; an external reviewer and monitor for projects funded by the European Commission. Before joining academia, she was a nutritionist in the pharmaceutical industry, and a voluntary researcher in the domain of obesity and cancer at the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL). Currently, she is chairing UGent’s ASEAN & South Asia regional platform to foster international collaborations.
She received a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences (Doctor of Bioscience Engineering): Food Science and Nutrition from Ghent University. As the awardee of the Food Policy Prize by the Royal Academy of Medicine in Belgium, her dissertation was titled ‘Consumer-Driven Development of Policy Actions to Improve Food Choice: The Cases of Health Claim Regulation and Product Reformulation’. She obtained an MSc degree in Nutrition and Rural Development (Nutrition and Food Systems), major in Public Health Nutrition from Ghent University and a BSc degree in Food Science and Technology from Monash University with trainings in business administration.
Research
Her work is often of an interdisciplinary nature, focusing on food-related decision-making and behavioural interventions. Mixed-methods are used to explore how psycho-socioeconomic (e.g. personal background, attitudes) and external (e.g. policy interventions, marketing strategies) factors shape food choices and agrifood production practices, the eventual health outcomes and environmental impacts. Her expertise include large-scale surveys, living labs, information tests, economic experiments with sensory evaluations, focus groups and advanced data modelling.
- CLYMBOL - Role of health-related claims and symbols in consumer behaviour (EU FP7 Grant agreement: 311963)
- PHYTOME - Phytochemicals to reduce nitrite in meat products (EU FP7 Grant agreement: 315683)
- PROMISS - Prevention of malnutrition in senior subjects in the EU (EU H2020 Grant agreement: 678732)
- SEAFOODTOMORROW - Nutritious, safe and sustainable seafood for consumers of tomorrow (EU H2020 Grant agreement: 773400)
- ProFuture - Proteins of the future (EU H2020 Grant agreement: 862980)
- RASCS - Risk assessment strategies for contaminants in seafood (EFSA Grant agreement: GP/EFSA/ENCO/2020/03)
- CUSTOMEAT - Cultured stem cells for customized meat design (FWO-SBO Grant agreement: S002821N)
- Safeguarding carbon sinks with sustainable agricultural technologies in Uganda (G-STIC Grant agreement: 174Y06723)
- Advancing Climate Action through the Promotion of 'Ugly' Fruit and Vegetable Consumption in Vietnam: Participatory Approach to Combat Food Loss and Waste for Food Security and Poverty Reduction (VLIR-UOS TEAM Grant agreement: VN2024TEA578A103)
- Enhancing Food Security and Livelihoods through Virus-Free Vitamin A-rich Sweet Potato Vines: A Demand-Driven and Multi-actor Approach in Uganda's Refugee Settlements and Host Communities. (VLIR-UOS TEAM Grant agreement: UG2024TEA575A103)
- Agro-food choice intervention
- Behavioural science
- EU Food policy
- Market(ing) analytics
- Public health nutrition
- Product development
- Responsible business conduct
- Economic experiment with sensory evaluation
- Food and Nutrition Policies
- Food Marketing and Consumer Behaviour
- Professional Conduct in Biosciences: Business, Consultancy and Research
Keywords
Education
Lecturer for Master’s courses at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent (Belgium):
Lecturer for Bachelor’s course at the UGent Global Campus, Incheon (Korea):
Guest-Lecturer - Universitas Gadjah Mada (Indonesia), Universiti Malaya (Malaysia), Huế University (Vietnam), Nanjing Agricultural University (China), etc.