![UGA Center for Food Safety doctoral student Zhihan Xian theorized that testing the microbiome of foods could be a means of determining their source of origin. The results demonstrated that the food microbiome contains origin-specific information, giving the method potential as a useful tool in stopping origin fraud practices. (Photo by Jennifer Reynolds)](https://secure.caes.uga.edu/news/multimedia/images/9149/zhihan-xian-(1)-Cropped.jpg)
Testing for Life
Zhihan Xian’s innovative research into new methods of food origin tracing has been named this year’s winner of the Testing for Life Student Award by AOAC International, a nonprofit association that seeks to set standards of analysis to help ensure food safety globally. Xian, a doctoral student in food science at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is on the leading edge of research of food origin authentication.