Contact

What we can help with

• Suggesting a topic. If there is something you keep running into and cannot find a clear explanation of, that is exactly what this site is for.
• Questions about food-science principles — why a product spoils, what water activity means in practice, how a preservation method works.
• Pointing out a mistake. If something here is wrong, unclear, or out of date, please tell us. Corrections are genuinely welcome.
• Feedback on the site itself — what is useful, what is missing, what is hard to read on a phone.

What we cannot do

It is fairer to be clear about the limits than to leave you waiting for an answer that cannot come:

• We cannot approve or validate a product. Confirming that a specific recipe is safe and shelf-stable requires testing and validation against the rules of the market you sell in. That has to come from a laboratory and the relevant authority — in Cambodia, the Institute of Standards of Cambodia.
• We cannot give legal or regulatory rulings on labelling, registration or export requirements. We can explain how the rules generally work; only the authority can tell you what applies to your product.
• We do not test samples or run analyses.
• We cannot promise a reply by a particular date. This is a small, free project. Every message is read, but responses are not immediate.

Asking about your own product

General questions are easy to answer badly. If you are asking about something you make, a few details make the difference between a vague reply and a useful one:

• What the product is and roughly what is in it.
• How it is made — the process steps in order, including any heating, and the temperature and time if you know them.
• How it is packed and stored — container type, sealed or not, chilled or ambient.
• Any numbers you already have — pH, °Brix, weight, or moisture. Even one measurement narrows the possibilities considerably.
• What actually went wrong, and when. “Mould after ten days at room temperature” is a solvable problem; “it spoils quickly” is not.

Following along

New articles are announced on the Telegram channel linked above, which is the quickest way to see them. The articles page lists everything published so far, and the eBooks page collects free, open-access references from the FAO, WHO and Codex Alimentarius.