We established in 2019, but have made only slow progress in advancing our business and our mission towards our vision. Food Entrepreneurship Academy was originally our related business, and between June 2020 and September 2024, we spent substantial time and effort to build Food Entrepreneurship Academy, to the detriment of our mission and vision here at Food Microbiology Academy.
In 2024, we have turned that around. A big turning point came in the middle of the year when we commenced hosting two industry experience students from Monash University for their internship placement. These incredible biomedical science students (Chloe and Ruby) made amazing contributions to our business while learning and growing themselves. One of Chloe’s contributions was to migrate our website here from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. This was a major milestone, especially because she set up Google AdSense. Therefore, finally after all these years, we commenced monetisation from advertisements. A huge blow though, that we didn’t anticipate, was that our page views would reduce, in a major way. We have been working solidly to address that – driving traffic to our website and taking steps to increase RPM (revenue per mile). Ruby advanced our research efforts quite substantially, with our project that we are undertaking in collaboration with Kristy Costello from Tickle my Tastebuds Food and Nutrition Consultancy. We also hosted two Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science students in July and August – Yi and Yifei. They both brought a different perspective to food microbiology, contributing in a way that certainly added value to our operation and broadened their understanding of the applications of pharmaceutical science.
In the second half of the year, we worked with a student team of computer science and related students from RMIT University who developed our chatbot, first version. This is a major step forward in us being able to provide science validating evidence based information on food safety, food quality/spoilage and fermented food/probiotics/gut health.
Two of our internship students, Chloe and Yifei, from between June and August have subsequently contributed to our business in different ways post-internship. We are certainly grateful to them.
A business is more likely to thrive when working with other businesses – collaboration over competition is the term thrown around to highlight the importance of working together with others. We have already mentioned Kristy Costello above, from the Central Coast of New South Wales here in Australia. Not only research, but we have posted some discussions videos on our YouTube channel where we have tapped in to Kristy’s practical experience in food safety in the food service context. Also, we have a US trusted collaborative partner in FoodSafePal, through Gavin Van De Walle. FoodSafePal provides online food handler training from all states in the US, as well as essential advice on the US food safety regulatory environment, both in food service and for cottage food operators who are carrying our a home-based food and/or beverage manufacturing operation.
Where does that leave us for 2025? We are looking to start a major relationship with stakeholders at various levels in Asia. To this end, we have appointed Yifei Chen as our regional manager for Asia. Yifei is currently located in Lianyungang, in the north of China’s Jiangsu province, and will be facilitating the expansion of our operation in to markets in Asia.
Overall this year, we will consolidate our focus on providing evidence-based scientifically validated information in line with our hashtag #fresherhealthiersafer. Fresher food is all about food preservation, spoilage and shelf-life extension. Healthier refers to health improvements through maintaining the gut microbiome with fermented foods, probiotics and/or prebiotics. Safer is to empower better food safety practices that will reduce the incidence of mortality and morbidity associated with foodborne diseases, so much of it is largely preventable. Thus, education, public awareness and research in this space are the major areas of focus for us in the coming year. Through social media, blogging and our YouTube channel we seek to spread factual information – a key aspiration is to effectively counter misinformation and disinformation.
We are filled with much anticipation for our achievements and milestones this year, and the difference we can make in the world. Through our hosting of internship students (we are starting the year hosting four Bachelor of Science students from Monash University), strengthening and broadening our collaborative partnerships along with building links with different stakeholders in Asia and Oceania to mutually achieve our organisations’ vision, we look forward to reflecting this time next year on the progress we have made, the milestones achieved and the lives, one way or another, touched and changed.
Wishing everyone a bright, energetic and radiant start to 2025! Please do contact us for anything at anytime. Happy to talk, chat and discuss.
Dr Philip Button (aka Junhao Bai) – Director / Food Safety and Quality Microbiologist located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. philip.button@foodmicrobiology.academy
Ms Yifei Chen – Asia Regional Manager located in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, China. yifei.chen@foodmicrobiology.academy
Leave a Reply