Articles

Browse all our food-science articles — practical, science-backed guidance for Cambodia’s students and food entrepreneurs.

  • A laboratory analyst reads a GC-MS/MS pesticide residue report next to samples of dried mango and black pepper, with a gas chromatograph on the bench behind.
    What a gas chromatography test can tell you about your food
    Your buyer asks for a pesticide residue report and the laboratory sends back a page of numbers. Here is what a GC test measures, what it cannot see, and how to read the report before you pay for one.
  • A small food producer works out a cost breakdown with a calculator and notebook, beside jars of finished product
    What Your Product Really Costs to Make
    Cost a whole batch, then divide by the bottles you can actually sell. How to work out what a food product really costs to make, and how to turn that into a price.
  • Why does my food product change from batch to batch — five sauce batches A to E with a scale, batch record, pH meter and thermometer
    Why Does My Food Product Change From Batch to Batch?
    Batch variation is rarely random — it comes from ingredients, measurements, and process. A practical guide for food SMEs: standardize the formulation, weigh instead of guessing, control raw materials and processing, and keep batch records.
  • Ingredient label under a magnifying glass showing additive codes E330, INS 211, INS 322 and INS 160a, with the five additive families and an Angkor skyline
    Understanding Food Additives and E-Numbers
    E330, INS 211 — additive codes look scary but are just an international naming system. What the main additive families do, why a number isn’t proof of approval, and how to use and label additives honestly.
  • Net weight and fill control — overfill, correct fill and underfill jars beside a scale reading 502.3 g, a fill-check list, tare card and drained-weight example
    Net Weight and Fill Control: How Food SMEs Can Reduce Underfilling and Overfilling
    The quantity on your pack is a promise and a legal declaration. How food SMEs can keep the average at or above the label, control variation, and reduce both underfilling and overfilling.
  • Basic HACCP for small food producers — the seven principles, GHP/GMP foundation, an example process flow with a critical control point at cooking, plus a chilli sauce, pH meter and thermometer
    Basic HACCP for Small Food Producers
    HACCP isn’t just for big factories — the thinking scales down to a one-person kitchen. The seven principles in plain language, how to find your critical control points, and a small chili-sauce example.
  • Sourcing Safe Ingredients: Checking Your Suppliers
    Your product is only as safe as its ingredients. How to choose suppliers on more than price, check every delivery, keep traceability records, and know when to reject a delivery.
  • How to Run a Simple Shelf-Life Test
    The date on your product should be earned, not guessed. A practical real-time shelf-life test you can start without a lab — what to check, how to set a safe date, and when you need microbiological testing.
  • The Cold Chain: Keeping Food Safe at the Right Temperature
    Temperature is the strongest control for perishable food. Understand the 5–60°C danger zone, why time in it is cumulative, how the cold chain breaks during transport, and the cooling habits that cause trouble.
  • Natural vs Synthetic Preservatives: What Really Keeps Food Fresh
    “No preservatives” is often a myth — salt, sugar, and vinegar are preservatives too. How preservatives work, an honest natural-vs-synthetic comparison, and why permitted levels matter more than image.
  • Cross-Contamination: How Safe Food Becomes Unsafe
    Most food poisoning in small kitchens comes from cross-contamination, not spoiled ingredients. The three kinds to manage, why you must separate raw from ready-to-eat, and how cleaning differs from sanitizing.
  • Drying and Dehydration: Preserving Food by Removing Water
    Drying is one of the oldest ways to preserve food — from dried fish to dried mango. How removing water stops microbes, the three main drying methods, and the mistakes that make dried food unsafe.
  • Choosing the Right Packaging for Your Food Product
    Packaging is part of the product — it sets shelf life, survives shipping, sells on the shelf, and must meet the law. How to match material and barrier to your food, plus Cambodia labelling basics.
  • Pasteurization Explained: Killing Germs Without Ruining Flavor
    Pasteurizing is not sterilizing. Understand time-and-temperature pairs (LTLT vs HTST), what heat does and doesn’t kill, and how to avoid re-contaminating a pasteurized product.
  • pH and Acidity: The Hidden Rule That Keeps Food Safe
    pH is invisible but decisive for food safety. Learn the pH 4.6 line, why low-acid foods are riskiest, and how acidity preserves food — with examples from Cambodian cooking.
  • How to read a food label like a scientist
    A food label is two things at once: real information and marketing. Here’s how to tell them apart in seconds — and make better products, because you’ll know what your own label really says.
  • Fermentation, explained without the fear
    Fermentation sounds like something going wrong, but it’s one of the oldest and safest food technologies humans have — and Cambodia is built on it: prahok, fish sauce, and pickled vegetables are all fermented.
  • What is water activity, really?
    Water activity is the most useful idea in food preservation that almost no one outside a lab talks about — it explains why honey never spoils, why dried fish keeps for months, and why “it doesn’t feel wet” tells you nothing about whether a product is safe.
  • From home kitchen to a product you can sell
    Everyone tells you your food is good enough to sell. Turning that praise into a safe, consistent, and legal product is a different job — here are the practical first steps, from a food scientist.
  • Why your food product spoils — and four ways to make it last longer
    Every food spoils eventually. The useful question isn’t whether your product will spoil, but how fast — and that speed is something you can design, using four simple levers.
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