Dr Bernard Hegarty is Director of Enforcement Policy with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. He is responsible for management of the official food control activities of the inspectorates and laboratories in their enforcement of food law, including the national inspection and sampling programmes for food contact materials. He provides technical expertise into initiatives by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland to increase compliance with legislation on food contact materials. He represented Ireland at the European Commission Working Group on Food Contact Materials, which develops the harmonised European legislation, from 2000 to 2009. He co-chaired the Council working group that developed Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. He chaired the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on materials intended for contact with food from 2006 to 2007. He has a BSc and a PhD in Chemistry and an MA in Public Management.
Ales Bartl advises clients on regulatory compliance of a broad range of products marketed in the EU. Ales primarily
focuses on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the Classification, Labelling, and
Packaging (CLP) regulation, Biocidal Products Regulation, Fertilizer Regulation, food law, regulation of electronic products, and product safety.
Ales represents clients in the European Courts and in procedures before the Board of Appeal of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). He also represents clients in various proceedings before the ECHA and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as well as before EU and national competent authorities on compliance and enforcement issues, including withdrawals and recalls of unsafe or non-compliant products.
Prior to joining Keller and Heckman, Ales interned at the European Commission and worked for almost ten years as an EU regulatory associate at two international law firms in Brussels.
As Head of Group Product Safety at the MM Group, Dr Gerold is responsible for Food Contact Compliance of papers and carton boards produced in six MM Board & Paper mills as well as for packaging manufactured at more than 70 MM Packaging sites located in Europe, America and Asia. Dr Gerold advises on food contact materials legislation and on the practical implementation thereof and hygiene requirements. She has a PhD in Chemistry from Vienna University of Technology and joined the MM group in 2022 after more than 15 years of experience in regulatory management at various food and pharma packaging companies.
Dr. Malcolm Driffield has over 25 years’ experience in the field of analytical chemistry, providing advice and guidance on the analytical techniques used to investigate problems across a number of commodities and Industries including food, beverages, packaging and food contact materials. During his 17 years at a UK Government laboratory, he gained widespread experience in analytical methodologies used for the determination of chemical contaminants in foods and food contact materials, including an extensive knowledge of non-targeted analysis techniques used for the determination of non-intentionally added substances (NIAS).
In 2018 Dr Driffield took up a position in the Chemical Regulation and Food Safety Team at Exponent, a multi-disciplinary engineering and scientific consulting firm, and now specializes in technical and regulatory problem solving, assisting businesses to gain authorization for products to be used in different global markets, and providing advice and guidance on analytical techniques used to investigate problems, and the interpretation of information rich data sets determined by modern analytical techniques.
Martin is currently Corporate Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Manager at Nestlé. He has over a decade of experience in food safety, regulatory compliance, and scientific research within the global food industry.
Currently based in Vevey, leading corporate regulatory and scientific affairs initiatives, with previous roles spanning digital food safety systems, packaging compliance across EMENA, and R&D in chemical contaminants.
Dr. Srinivas Alapati is a senior toxicologist with 23 years of experience in product safety and risk assessments of FCM’s, cosmetics, and personal care products. He holds a doctoral degree in Nanotoxicology (Ph.D) and Masters in Biochemistry from University of Madras, Chennai, India. He has held significant roles in major companies, including serving as the Senior Toxicologist at Reckitt, India and as Senior Manager of Food Safety & Toxicology at Siegwerk. Currently, he is working as a Toxicologist at Flint Group. His expertise encompasses global packaging regulations and toxicological evaluations.
