Honey sensory innovator receives Seedlab Australia Churchill Fellowship

Seedlab Australia has announced Jessica Locarnini as the inaugural recipient of the Seedlab Australia Churchill Fellowship, supporting her work to build a national framework for honey sensory education, expert training and competition judging in Australia.

Locarnini first discovered honey sensory analysis in 2018 after enrolling in a course in the US. She later completed all levels of Italy’s honey sensory analysis training, became the first Australian admitted to the Italian Register of Honey Experts, trained with the American Honey Show Training Council, and now judges competitions across Australia.

Australia produces some of the most distinctive honeys, yet we currently have no structured national framework for training honey sensory experts. Locarnini will now travel overseas to learn from leading international organisations and explore how Australia can develop its own pathway for training honey sensory experts and judges, using Australian honey and reflecting the needs of the local industry.

“Churchill Fellowships are incredibly powerful because they give people the chance to think bigger, to think strategically, and to really dig deep into a topic that is of interest to them and to others. Experience has taught me that Fellows go on to create great things for Australia as a result,” said Seedlab Australia founder Dr Hazel MacTavish-West.

Seedlab Australia founder Dr Hazel MacTavish-West. Image: Supplied

“My own Fellowship had a profound impact on my career and ultimately helped shape the thinking behind Seedlab Australia. To now support Jessica as she builds knowledge that can benefit Australia’s honey industry is particularly special.”

Through the Fellowship, Locarnini hopes to create the kind of learning pathway she once had to travel overseas to access.

“I’m incredibly honoured to be named the inaugural recipient of the Seedlab Australia Churchill Fellowship. I’ve been quietly working to build honey sensory and judging knowledge and capability in Australia for the past eight years, so to have organisations like Seedlab Australia and the Churchill Trust recognise the potential of this work and what it could mean for the Australian honey industry means so much,” Locarnini said.

MacTavish-West said sensory understanding is an important but often under-recognised part of food and beverage innovation.

“For food and beverage businesses, the way a product tastes, smells, feels and is understood can shape how it is valued, judged and remembered. Honey is such a rich and distinctive Australian product, and Jessica’s Fellowship has the potential to help more people understand, describe and celebrate that difference,” MacTavish-West said.

Seedlab Australia’s support of the Churchill Fellowship forms part of its broader commitment to strengthening Australia’s food and beverage ecosystem, not only by supporting founders via its programs, but by backing ideas that can create lasting value for industries and communities.

Applications for the next Churchill Fellowship open in February 2027.

Top image credit: iStock.com/SimonSkafar