Dr. Chang has over 20 years of experience with food contact materials and food additive regulations. Dr. Chang received her doctorate in Immunology at State University of New York at Buffalo. She went on to work for two years at the Uniformed Service University of Health Sciences as a postdoctoral fellow to investigate gene expression. Afterwards, Dr. Chang worked as a staff fellow at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for one year, where she cloned the immunoglobulin gene for Col-1, which is a monoclonal antibody against carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). In her time with the FDA, Dr. Chang has worked as a regulatory toxicology review scientist, reviewing the safety data related to antibiotic resistance genes as selectable markers in genetically modified plants, GRAS petitions/notifications, antimicrobial agents, as well as direct and indirect food additives. Currently, Dr. Chang works as a consumer safety officer, coordinating the review process of premarket notifications for food contact substances.
Phil Berrier leads global compliance and food safety for Printpack, a leading manufacturer/converter of flexible and rigid packaging for food, consumer goods, medical devices, and personal care products. He has held leadership, research, and advocacy positions over the last 27 years with leading companies at all points of the plastics supply chain from chemical manufacture to brand ownership.
Dr. Elena Emelianova has 15 years of experience on regulatory assessment and compliance of food contact materials and chemical products used in food processing by working as a scientific evaluator of Federal Ministry of Health in Canada. She received her PhD in inorganic chemistry and has a scientific background in analytical, environmental, and polymer chemistry. Prior to joining Health Canada, Dr. Emelianova was a professor at the St. Petersburg Technological University and a Fulbright visiting professor at George Washington University (GWU), USA. She had an experience engaged as a Chemical Management Plan coordinator between directorates of Health Canada, and as a chemistry evaluator of pesticides at the Pest Management Regulatory Agency. Dr. Emelianova speaks regularly at international conferences on related regulatory topics.
Dr. Elena Emelianova also has extensive experience on counseling clients on Canada’s Food and Drug Act and Regulations, regulatory requirements, and compliance relating to chemical substances, polymers, and incidental food additives used in food processing in Canada and other jurisdictions, including the U.S., the European Union, and other countries.
Professor Ariosti is a Chemical Engineer (1981, National University of Buenos Aires) with two post-degrees: a Master on Food Science and Technology (1983, National University of Mar del Plata) and a Specialization on Plastics Conversion Technologies (2005, National University of San Martín).
He received scholarships for technical training on food packaging and other sanitary applications of plastics, at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Roma, Italy) (1987), the Svenska Quality Management Group (Stockholm, 1987), the Japan Packaging Institute/JICA (Tokyo, 1991), and the Iberoamerican (Latin America + Spain + Portugal) CYTED (Science and Technology for Development) Program Center (Antigua Guatemala, 2002).
He works at the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) - Plastics Centre of Argentina since 1984, dealing with food packaging, materials interactions with foodstuffs, packaging and environment, and regulatory issues. He has been Deputy of the Plastics Centre (1997-2002) and also its Director (2002-2007). Now he is mainly involved with senior technical assistance and training, and with the MERCOSUR Packaging Group for the development of FCMs regulations.
Since 1991 he represents INTI at the MERCOSUR Food Packaging Group, which developed the block regulations on different food contact materials, and since 1984 at the Argentine Institute of Standardization and Certification (IRAM).
Kathryn Skaggs as an Associate at Keller and Heckman LLP in Washington, DC. She practices in the firm’s Food and Drug group. She advises domestic and international clients regarding the compliance of food additives and food-contact materials in a host of jurisdictions including the United States and European Union.
Ms. Skaggs helps companies with the premarket review of a wide variety of food-contact materials, from biopolymers to recycled pulp. She has significant experience submitting Food Contact Notifications to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and also has submitted food-contact petitions in other countries including China, India, South Korea, and Indonesia. Ms. Skaggs provides counsel to companies in the areas of drug and medical device packaging. In addition, she advises the tobacco and e-vapor industries on regulatory issues in the U.S. and EU. Ms. Skaggs also assists clients on state regulatory requirements, such as Proposition 65.
Eric Andrews is a regulatory/compliance specialist for colourants, adjuvants, and impurities used or found in plastics compounding with emphasis on food-contact materials. He has worked as a food contact compliance testing consultant, a migration testing technician with 10 years’ experience, and an impurities researcher.
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.
Ms. Xiaolu Wang is a Senior Chemical Regulatory Compliance Consultant with Verisk 3E. Xiaolu has over eight years of experience working in the field of EHS compliance, focusing on regulatory compliance for consumer packaged goods (CPG), including food, food additives, food contact materials, cosmetics, and personal care products. Xiaolu is a frequent speaker at the Global Food Contact Conferences and serves as a member of the Advisory Board.
Xiaolu is a licensed attorney admitted to the bars of the State of New York, District of Columbia, and China. She is a native speaker of Mandarin Chinese and is fluent in English.
Joan Baughan practices food and drug law, focusing on US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and comparable international regulation of food contact materials, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices. With a distinctive legal and scientific background in microbiology and medical technology, Joan helps clients establish regulatory compliance for their products globally, performs compliance audits and training seminars, and represents companies and trade associations before US agencies and their international counterparts.
Joan Baughan also developed substantial experience in Brussels, counselling clients on the regulation of food packaging materials and medicinal products under European Union and Member State legislation.
Mr. Keithline assists companies in establishing the suitable regulatory status of their products under the requirements of various federal agencies including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Mr. Keithline also assists clients with compliance issues under state and local requirements relating to the manufacture, labeling and disposal of products and packaging, including toxics in packaging, legislation and various state right-to-know acts. In addition, Mr. Keithline advises clients regarding the requirements for these products throughout the world, especially in Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Central and South America, and the Pacific Rim.
Prior to law school, Mr. Keithline served as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy aboard the USS West Virginia (SSBN 736), a nuclear submarine.Mr. Keithline earned his law degree from Washington and Lee University where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Washington and Lee Law Review.
Kevin is co-founder and owner of Decernis and is an experienced regulatory attorney who has worked and consulted for 20+ years in the food and consumer products space. He advises some of the world’s largest manufacturers on Food, Food Contact and Supply Chain Compliance challenges globally. Working with a team of native speaker experts in all major markets, Kevin has led a Decernis team effort to expand regulatory coverage to over 200 countries. He spends much of the year meeting with clients to identify and satisfy their needs across the Decernis global client base. Kevin builds cooperative and partnering relationships with governmental agencies and organizations (today 40+ countries across five continents, including US FDA, European Union, Canada, China and Japan).
An expert on food contact and food additive regulation globally, Kevin is a frequent speaker at international conferences and an active participant in the Regulatory Affairs Committees of food, cosmetic and consumer product associations. Kevin also attends the Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Additives in China annually as a member of the International Food Additives Council.
Prior to founding Decernis, Kevin worked as a regulatory attorney and later VP, International Operations at Ariel Research, which managed product safety regulations globally for chemical manufacturers.
Marjatta graduated in 1995 from Technical University of Helsinki with a MSc degree in paper, paper converting, and printing technologies. During her career, she has gained strong experience from industry in field of paperboard, printing, and food production and seen the development of requirements with food contact materials from different perspectives. Currently she is working as a Product Safety and Sustainability Manager at Metsä Board.
Bio to be added shortly
Dr. Andres M. Gonzalez-Bonet is a review chemist at the Center for Food Safety and Nutrition (CFSAN), Office of Food Additive Safety (OFAS), Division of Food Contact Substances (DFCS), where he reviews pre-market submissions on uses of food contact substances. His expertise at OFAS includes estimation and modeling of migration of food contact substances into food and refined consumer exposures to food contact substances. Dr Gonzalez-Bonet earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from University of Puerto Rico and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry from Purdue University.
Michaela Hofbauer is Group Leader for the Adhesives Technology team of Eastman. She is responsible for product and application development activities as well as technical service for the Americas, with a focus on hygiene, packaging, tape, label and polymer modification applications. She operates from Eastman’s global headquarters in Kingsport, Tennessee.
Hofbauer joined Eastman in 2001 as Laboratory Manager of the European adhesives business. In 2007, she moved into marketing, and held several roles with responsibility for the European adhesive market, the tire industry, the global packaging market, and the global adhesive market. In May 2019 she returned to the technology team as a group leader.
She is a founding member of the Sustainability Ambassadors Business Team, and serves as a mentor to team members in Europe and, since 2018, in North America. A German national, she holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Bonn.
Bio to be added shortly
Mr. Sonnenberg is Senior Advisor in NOVA Chemicals’ Product Integrity team, the group responsible for global regulatory compliance of the Corporation’s products.
In this role he manages the regulatory compliance of NOVA Chemicals’ polyethylene resin products. His expertise spans North America (U.S., Canada), the EU, China and South America, focusing on food contact regulation, with additional work on pharmaceutical packaging and chemical control compliance.
Combining this with his knowledge of polyethylene resins and their production, he advises the company’s business units and management on regulatory matters, and engages extensively in customer assurance and education on behalf of the company.
A long-time member of the SPI’s Food, Drug & Cosmetic Packaging Committee, he now serves on the Committee’s Executive Board.
After graduating with a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Toronto, he conducted research in clinical applications of lipid biochemistry, receiving an M.Sc. from the University of Toronto. He then joined NOVA Chemicals as an Analytical Chemist at its Calgary (Canada) Research Centre, and subsequently took up a position in the Product Integrity group, in which he has continued to the present.
