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.
Jonathan studied biochemistry and specialised in toxicology at the University of Surrey in the UK and graduated there in 2002. He joined the UK's Food Standards Agency the same year where he worked as a senior scientific officer on risk management of chemicals in food, including contaminants, pesticides and food contact materials. He represented and negotiated on behalf of the UK at EU and international level including Codex and managed several research and surveillance projects.
Jonathan joined the European Commission in 2014 and works as a policy officer in DG SANTE on food contact materials including the new initiative to revise the EU legislation. He is based in Brussels, in Belgium.
Laura Markley, Ph.D. has been a toxicologist for 15 years with expertise in risk assessment, metals toxicology, nanotoxicology, and food safety. She received her doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Maine and completed her postdoctoral studies at the FDA in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health. She has worked as a toxicologist in consulting firms performing environmental and human health risk assessments and volunteered as the Associate Director at the nonprofit Wise Laboratory Field Research Program in collaboration with the Ocean Foundation in D.C. Currently, Dr. Markley is a toxicologist at the FDA in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in the Division of Food Contact Substances as a safety reviewer.
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.
Joan frequently speaks at international conferences on various FDA and related regulatory topics and is an accomplished writer within the food and drug arena. She was a contributing author and the sole editor of the comprehensive food packaging book "Global Legislation for Food Contact Materials," and has written chapters – such as "Regulation of Nanotechnology in Food Contact Applications in the United States and Canada," and "US Legislation on Food Contact Materials," – for other publications. Joan also has written about drug packaging, including an article titled, "The Latest on Drug Master Files for Packaging Materials in the United States – and a Little History," for Packaging Digest.
Paul Schutes is the Executive Director of the Recycled Paperboard Alliance (RPA) and the Recycled Paperboard Technical Association (RPTA), the 2 leading industry associations dedicated to expanding the use and improving the manufacture of recycled fiber products. Paul is a paperboard and packaging expert with 40 years of experience in the industry. During his career in paperboard packaging Paul has held senior positions in packaging design, engineering, sales and production. In his role as Executive Director of the RPA/RPTA Paul works with North America’s largest brand owners and retailers on a wide range of sustainability initiatives
Peter graduated from York University with a BA in Chemistry and from University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology with a PhD in polymer science. He has worked in the resins and coatings industries in various roles. He is currently Regulatory Affairs Manager (in Europe) for The Valspar Corporation and is actively involved in activities to support the can coating business and food contact, some of which are chairing the industry consortium involved in the 7th Framework Programme for developing a risk management tool to assess exposure to migrants from food packaging (FACET) and the Coatings Code of Practice group in addition to supporting other trade association initiatives. The latest initiative is in critiquing conditions in the migration guidelines for the plastics regulation and where they are inappropriate for non-plastics in association with numerous professional associations.
Peter has published widely – over 18 books and peer reviewed scientific articles.
Hazel O'Keeffe counsels clients on the regulation of food-contact materials, notably in the European Union (EU), Switzerland and the United Kingdom, focusing on establishing a suitable status for all types of food-contact materials at both the EU and national level.
Hazel helps clients navigate the complexities of applying the principle of mutual recognition to facilitate the free movement of non-harmonized products throughout the EU, the European Economic Area (EEA), and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. She advises on inter alia, EU requirements for biocides, materials in contact with drinking water, personal protective equipment, packaging waste and single-use plastics, medicinal products/European Pharmacopoeia, medical devices, cosmetics, fluorinated greenhouse gases, ozone depleting substances and recycling and green claims.
She completed an internship at the European Commission during which she specialized in relations with the European Parliament and gained first-hand experience of the workings of the EU institutions.
Hazel is a contributing author to PackagingLaw.com, as well as related industry publications, and is frequently invited to speak at international food-contact conferences.
Bastiaan Schupp works since mid-2011 as legislative officer on food contact materials in DG Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. In the context of food safety, his main responsibly is the implementation of the specific measures on food contact materials presently in force, with a focus on the framework Regulation, plastic and recycled plastic food contact materials. Bastiaan is educated as a chemical engineer, and has a background in risk management.
After his chemistry Ph.D. Martin started working in the printing ink industry and has over 28 years’ experience in the development and application of liquid inks for flexible packaging, with a particular focus on food contact regulatory topics related to the use of printed food contact materials. He is working with various national and European associations and is currently Chairing the PIFOOD (Packaging Inks for Food) working group of EuPIA.
Dr. Monika Tönnießen is a chemist by profession with the degree of doctor in organic chemistry. In 1993 she started working for Henkel AG & Co. KGaA in the division Industrial Adhesives, department product development of labelling adhesives. Since 2008 she is part of the Product Safety Department of the Adhesive Technologies division and deals with customer inquiries. She is an expert on all topics related to food contact. At Henkel she is the responsible manager for all food contact questions. She is member of the paper & packaging group of the European Adhesive Association FEICA and of the technical committee paper/packaging (TKPV) of the German adhesives association IVK.
Sarah Dubail has been Regulatory Affairs Specialist at Sherwin-Williams, Packaging coatings division, since 2017. Formerly she was the Manager of the European Analytical lab of Valspar for 13 years, responsible for analysing migration from packaging coatings and providing analytical data to carry out risk assessments. She has experience in food contact regulations and analytical methods for the determination of FCM migrants including NIAS. She is an active member of CEPE food contact material groups, contributed to coating industry migration and NIAS guidelines and chairs the Rigid Metal Can Sector’s working group on Methodology to demonstrate Compliance with Framework Regulation (EU) 1935/2004.
Koen Weel is a Dutch food chemist who has been professionally involved in the safety and compliance of food contact materials in several roles since 2004. He has worked as an auditor in the food packaging manufacturing industry, and was also a project manager for food contact materials at TNO Triskelion, performing migration and compliance studies against international food contact legislations. The larger part of his working life so far has been spent at Danone Specialized Nutrition (in several roles) responsible for food safety and compliance of baby and medical food packaging.
Tanja currently leads the Global Sustainability Center of Excellence at Huhtamaki Group. Her particular expertise areas include the development of new sustainable technologies in packaging applications guided by customer and consumer insight; packaging related project & compliance management. She has had various packaging and business development positions in several companies across the packaging value chain with both suppliers and FMCG brand owners, especially in the food and beverage sectors. Tanja’s qualifications include a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Helsinki University of Technology; post graduate studies in Design Business Management and Marketing.
Dr. Barry Podd gained a BA (Hons) and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Essex. Post Doctoral Research Fellow for three years at the University of Surrey.
He spent 34 years in Industry in various positions in Research and Development, Marketing, Sales and the Regulatory Affairs Departments and in the Consumer Products Industry as Associate Director Global Regulatory Affairs responsible for regulatory management issues related to chemicals, biocides and food contact around the world before retiring in 2013.
Before retiring, Barry was active in a number of Trade Associations, including CEFIC, EDANA and the European Tissue Symposium, where he either chaired and/or participated in a large number of working groups.
Anna Papagrigoraki is the Sustainability Director at Cepi, the European Confederation of Paper Industries, since 2019. Prior to Cepi, Anna held positions in PlasticsEurope where she was part of the Advocacy team and CEFS, the EU Sugar Manufacturers Association as an Environment & Agricultural Advisor. She has experience in environmental policy topics ranging from industrial emissions and circular economy to climate change and life-cycle-assessment. Anna has Masters in Civil Engineering (2009) and MSc in Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (2010) from the University of Southampton.
Alexandra Roß (Dipl.-Ing) studied food technology at the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences. After several years of project management at the Bremerhaven Institute for Food Technology and Bioprocess Engineering (BILB), Alexandra spent two years at Lucas Meyer GmbH, Hamburg, providing technical service for their soy lecithins business. In 2000, she switched to the food packaging industry, working for SEALED AIR GmbH, Norderstedt, a manufacturer of flexible food packaging and then from 2009, for H.B. Fuller, a global adhesives producer with a manufacturing site in Lueneburg. Alexandra has expertise in food contact regulations as well as quality-related aspects in the Packaging and Adhesives industry and has had a long involvement in relevant industry associations. In her function as Product Regulatory Specialist EIMEA with HB Fuller, she is primarily responsible for all food contact compliance issues across all adhesive technologies. Product-relevant compliance information in applications for textiles, shoe, hygiene or furniture adhesives round off her professional profile. As a member of both the German Adhesives Association IVK (Technical Commission Paper and Packaging) and FEICA, the European Association for Adhesives and Sealants, she has worked on many guidelines and position papers.
After his chemistry studies, Dr. Derra became head of laboratory of the ISEGA Forschungs- und Untersuchungsgesellschaft mbH, Aschaffenburg. Since 1986, he has been president of this company. As an authorized state registered expert for the analyses of packaging materi-als and of soil and air, he attends to the field of certification of materials in contact with food-stuffs. Apart from the analysis and evaluation of foodstuffs packages, environmental effects like recycling and composting are main focal points of his work.
Within the new German National Accreditation Body DAkkS, he represents the German Chemical Society GDCh in the fields of chemistry and protection of consumer health.
Dr. Derra is chairman of the analytical DIN committees on paper as well as on plastics in food contact and, in this function he also represents the German standardization in the correspond-ing European CEN workgroups. Since 2015, he is Chairman of the CEN/TC 172 Pulp, Paper and Board.
Viveka joined the Swedish Forest Industries Federation in September 2020. Prior to that she was the General Counsel of Sveaskog, Sweden’s largest forest owner.
Helena Moring-Vepsäläinen is a Master of Science in forest products technology, graduated from Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland) in 2012. Her previous work history concerns various tasks in the fields of sustainability and product safety. Currently working as a Product safety manager at Metsä Board, she is responsible for managing the compliance of paperboard products. Actively developing the best practices to handle especially food contact compliance issues, she wants to enhance the paperboard industry to meet the growing sustainability and safety needs. Helena is based in Helsinki, Finland.
Minna Kiviranta has a Master of Food Science from the University of Helsinki. She has been working at Stora Enso since 2003 in different positions. Minna has a long experience on regulatory affairs, food and product safety, food safety and hygiene management systems and auditing. Currently she is working as Senior Manager, Product Safety in Stora Enso division Packaging Solutions. Minna is an active member of multiple national and European product safety committees and working groups, and currently chairing the CEPI Food Contact Group.
