Alistair manages the Food Packaging Safety Section within Smithers. This involves advising clients on the safety legislation which applies to food packaging in a wide range of different countries throughout the world and coordinating work programmes to ensure that clients' products meet these requirements. His expertise spans all the EU countries, USA, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Israel, Russia and all the South American countries.
Alistair graduated with a degree and PhD in Chemistry from Birmingham University. After working for BP and the Department of Health, he joined Smithers in 1994, taking up his current position in 1995.
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Daniel Rubenstein provides strategic counseling to industry regarding regulatory compliance requirements for food packaging materials and food ingredients across the globe.
As an Industrial Engineer with a background in medical device manufacturing, Daniel recognizes the importance of providing clients with timely and actionable advice regarding critical regulatory decisions that drive product innovation, marketing, and promotion. Daniel leverages this experience to assist companies in proactively establishing compliance for products under the laws and regulations administered by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He also is familiar with food contact material regimes in the European Union (EU) and jurisdictions throughout Asia and South America.
Daniel regularly speaks to professional organizations and trade associations about developing, implementing, and promoting Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) strategies and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for regulated facilities, and has authored a number of publications on this topic. He also uses his technical background and internal auditing experience to assist clients to prevent and – when necessary – respond to product contamination and recall situations.
• Scientific Evaluator in the Food Packaging Materials and Incidental Additives Section of the Bureau of Chemical Safety at Health Canada since 2006.
• Our work includes conducting evaluation of the chemical safety of food packaging materials and Incidental Additives.
• Received a Bachelor in Science Honours Chemistry Co-operative Education Program at the University of Ottawa, Canada.
Andrea began her career working in labs, first as a research assistant with the Institute for Genomic Research and then with Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC. Her undergraduate degree is in Biology from University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia. After attending law school at George Washington University, she was an attorney for many years with Emord & Associates PC in the Washington, D.C. area, representing clients regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration (and related agencies). After leaving private practice, Andrea was Legal Counsel with Celltex Therapeutics, a ground-breaking stem cell company in Houston, TX. Next, Andrea was Regulatory Director, Associate General Counsel with Innophos, Inc, a manufacturing company supplying ingredients to the food, dietary supplement, pharmaceutical and technical industries around the globe. Currently Andrea is Food Law Counsel with Campbell Soup Company working primarily with its Quality, Regulatory, R&D, and Marketing teams on some of the most iconic brands in the United States.
Stephen Ziehm is Senior Vice President of Red Flag USA, based in Washington, DC, where he advises clients on a broad range of government affairs issues, specializing in international trade policy and regulatory matters. Among other positions, he serves as a corporate representative to the U.S. government’s Technical Advisory Committee for Trade in Processed Foods. He helps direct Red Flag’s Washington International Business Council (WIBC), which provides tailored analysis and advocacy to corporate executives as well as ongoing policy monitoring. He has a B.A. in International Relations from the College of William and Mary and holds a master’s degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, where he concentrated in International Business Diplomacy.
Ralph leverages more than four decades of
federal and state regulatory experience to help clients navigate the ever-evolving, complex web of key regulatory issues involving food safety, labeling and packaging.
Ralph regularly assists corporate and individual clients, including food and beverage companies, in a wide variety of matters, including regulatory and legislative proceedings, contracts, and litigation. He helps clients establish compliance with the laws and regulations administered by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and comparable state authorities.
His clients benefit from his diverse legal insight from having previously served as a senior policy analyst for the FDA. Ralph
has advised countless corporations and trade associations with respect to federal, state and international legal and regulatory
compliance.
Ralph played a leading role in the adoption and implementation of legislation and regulations creating the Food-Contact
Substance Notification process and streamlining the FDA process for approving food packaging while ensuring the safety
of the packaged food. Prior to his work at the FDA, Ralph spent more than 20 years in firm leadership at a law firm in Washington, D.C. There, he led a team of 25 lawyers and food scientists focused on FDA and international regulation of food packaging while also serving as managing partner and on the firm’s management committee.
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 16 years at a UK Government lab, 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 November 2018 Dr Driffield took up the position of Managing Scientist in the Chemical Regulation and Food Safety Team at Exponent International, 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.
A member of the FoodChain ID Executive Leadership Team, Kevin is an experienced regulatory attorney who has worked and consulted in the food and consumer products space for 25 years. He advises some of the world’s largest manufacturers on food additive, food contact and supply chain compliance challenges. He has headed international consulting projects on four continents over two decades and is responsible for the content of FoodChain ID’s regulatory compliance products. Prior to FoodChain ID’s acquisition of Decernis (of which Kevin was a founder), he was responsible for regulatory content and was Executive Director of the global advisory services team.
With more than 10 years seniority in the FCM field, working as a specialist sales manager also for multinational companies, and a degree in Biotechnology, Lisa created her own Consultancy Company less than two years ago. She is one of the main key contacts in Western Europe for enterprises wanting to work on their Quality Systems to enhance quality consciousness of processes, products in terms of the generation of chemical risks for people and for the environment. Her technical background allows her to link the requirements and the effectiveness of analysis requested.
Huqiu Zhang holds a PhD in organic chemistry. She provides regulatory and technical consultation to consumer product and food industries, chemical and food contact material industries, and their supply chains in the areas of chemical safety, global regulatory compliance, and packaging sustainability. Her expertise includes regulatory compliance strategies and implementation; new materials and recycled materials pre-market clearance, approval, and compliance; supply chain chemical management and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP); business due diligence, chemical hazard identification, and exposure and risk assessment.
Huqiu is a principal at Sevee & Maher Engineers, based in Chicago office. Her more than 25 years of working experience extends to the whole supply chain of food packaging and consumer products, working with chemical, material and compounding manufacturers, food/beverage company, and Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) company.
Huqiu played a critical role in opening a technical communication channel between the US FDA and China MOH agencies in 2006. She is a long-standing contributor to the Journal of Plastic Film & Sheeting. Huqiu has frequently been invited to speak as an industry expert at professional conferences, with the most recent as speaker during 2023 International Molded Fiber Association Conference. She is on the Board of Technical Advisor for Zymtronix, and a past board member for industry associations.
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Henrik Jungclas is a Subject Matter Expert for Food Contact Materials at FoodChain ID. Prior to his recent position he has worked as a Regulatory Affairs Manager and internal auditor for quality and hygiene at Tetra Pak, Weidenhammer and Sonoco Consumer Products Europe since 2006.
He is chair of the Food Contact group of the German Paper Converting Association and co-author of various books in the area of Food Contact Materials and Hygiene management. He was an external expert to the BfR Commission subgroup Paper & Board from 2019 until 2022. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the Phillips-University Marburg. His main interests are global compliance and environmental assessments of Food contact materials.
