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At the European Commission, between 2000-2024, Martinus held a variety of positions. Policy officer on rural development in Directorate-General Agriculture, and later state aid case-handler. 2009 administrator at the pharmaceuticals unit in DG Enterprise. He worked on the review of the legal framework for veterinary medicinal products, the establishment of maximum residue limits of veterinary medicines and antimicrobial resistance. January 2015 unit E3/ Pesticides and Biocides of DG for Health and Food Safety. Main responsibilities were endocrine disruptors, treated articles, maximum residue limits and controls and had been for many years Acting Head of Sector of biocides. 2022-2023 programme manager in the Directorate-General Agriculture. He was the primary contact point for the Dutch CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 and the rural development programmes 2014-2022. He was member of the team negotiating the Flemish CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027 as well. He joined the team on food contact materials in DG Health and Food in 2023. His areas of interest are the Plastics Regulation’s implementation, analytical methods, enforcement and the revision of the legal framework for food contact materials.
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.
In addition to her FDA experience, Joan developed substantial experience counselling clients on the regulation of food packaging materials and medicinal products under European Union and Member State legislation while working in Brussels. She has been assisting clients with EU food-contact matters, and with similar matters in MERCOSUR, China, and Japan, for decades. Because she has considerable experience with food packaging legislation in many jurisdictions, she is uniquely qualified to assist companies with global needs.
She is also an accomplished writer within the food and drug arena. For example, she is a chapter contributor and the sole editor of the comprehensive food packaging book, "Global Legislation for Food Contact Materials.” The second edition of this essential reference for industry stakeholders was published earlier this year. Joan frequently speaks at international conferences on various FDA and related regulatory topics.
Tim currently works as a Senior Policy Advisor at the Food Standards Agency in London, UK. Tim joined the Food Contact Material policy team within the Chemical Safety Policy Unit in September 2017. Key responsibilities include policy development and risk management in relation to food contact materials and articles. His academic qualifications include a BSc (hons) in Biochemistry with Medical Biosciences and an MSc in Environmental Technology.
I am an analytical chemist with a PhD in Chemistry/Environmental catalysis from the University of Leipzig (Germany). I have been working since 2021 in the Food Ingredients and Packaging unit of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) as a scientific officer, where I am coordinating the safety assessment of food contact materials, which is performed by experts of the EFSA Food Contact Materials Panel. Prior to this, I worked in research in the field of environmental nanotechnology at the European Commission – JRC (Ispra, Italy) and the Helmholtz Centre of Environmental Research (Leipzig, Germany).
Antonio Nespoli is Q&FS Director for Region Italy in Barilla Group. He graduated in Chemical Engineering and has over 20 years experience in the food industry, both in R&D and Q&FS. His unit covers Q&FS risk assessment and management from raw materials risk assessment to final product quality monitoring at Point of Sale.
Antonio is a Member of the Foreign Bodies Working Group of the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG) and is a scientific article reviser for Cereal Chemistry.
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.
Dr Martin Klatt, PhD, has been a chemist with BASF since 1995. In his current role he is REACh Coordinator and Global Registration Coordinator of the Operating Division Dispersions and Resins.
He has held multiple advocacy activities including President of dispersion producer’s association Europe (EPDLA), President of UVEB curable resins Europe (UVEB), Member of Board of ALIPA, Chair of Radtech HSE Committee (Radtech = Radiation curing technology value chain), Chair of Deutsche Bauchemie AK 6.10 “Polymere”, and Member of CARACAL Subgroup Polymers
Rachida Semail counsels clients on the regulatory status of food packaging and food related matters in the European Union (EU) and around the globe. This includes food contact, drinking water contact, and compliance relating to enzymes, flavourings, and food additive clearances. She also counsels clients on clearance, compliance, and packaging issues relating to cosmetics, drugs, and medical devices, as well as product recalls and other related issues, including biocides in food contact materials. Rachida has also expertise on the textiles and machinery directives.
Prior to joining Keller and Heckman, Rachida practiced regulatory law at a French law firm specializing in EU and French food law where she assisted clients on various food issues, such as labeling, claims, borderline products, novel foods. During her doctorate studies, she completed an internship with the legal service of the European Commission in Brussels, where she gained a first-hand perspective of policymaking and the legislative process, while completing her doctorate thesis.
Dr. Petra Hilt is a food chemist with almost 20 years of expertise with regulatory requirements for food contact materials
• She holds a PhD in natural sciences from the University of Hohenheim, Germany
• Professional experience:
o Lab manger food contact materials at local official surveillance lab in Germany (CVUA Stuttgart)
o Expert food packaging safety in food packaging industry
o Lecturer in field of food contact materials at different universities
o Current position: Global Manager Compliance Food Contact Materials, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions (based in Germany)
Inge van Schöll is a Senior Project Manager and Scientific Expert within the Food-Contact Material team of Triskelion.
Company name: Ducares B.V., trading as TRISKELION (part of the Certania group)
Inge is an expert on food contact regulations and analytical method development. She has a focus on petitioning new substances to be used in food contact materials, mainly for the EU and USA.
With her 30 years of background in chromatography and mass spectrometry, Inge has developed many analytical methods for small molecules, metabolites, peptides, proteins and oligomers.
Since March 2019 Burcak Icli Pollard has the role as Food Contact Material (FCM) specialist RSA & Safety at Nestle System Technology Center. Here role is to ensure the FCM safety and worldwide compliance (S&C) of all the development and innovation projects on Nestle Systems ( e.g. beverage machines and packaging/capsules) including latest sustainable breakthrough Nestle solutions. From July 2015 to March 2019 She was Continuous Improvement Manager at ROPAC® Packaging, part of Schoeller Allibert Group. Her role included to manage projects related to raw materials innovation and process stabilisation for high quality packaging. She validated multiple raw materials for packaging product portfolio using her strong theoretical knowledge on polymer materials and good understanding of FCM legislation. Her technical abilities come from 8 years managing and performing research projects during her PhD (et EPFL, Switzerland) and Post-doctoral (Adolphe Merkle Institute, Switzerland) studies on Chemistry and Materials Science
Willem van Veen is Senior Advisor Sustainability and Food Contact at inDUfed, the Belgian federation of the paper and glass industry. As an engineer, he works mainly on packaging, recycling, the circular economy and food safety. He is a guest speaker on these topics at the University of Ghent. Willem van Veen is also a board member of Fost Plus, Filpap and the Belgian Packaging Institute. Willem van Veen is Chairman of the PIJITF (Packaging Ink Joint Industry Task Force).
Beate has accumulated over 15 years of expertise as the Head of Regulatory Affairs, where she manages the safety and compliance of packaging materials for Constantia Flexibles worldwide. She follows global regulatory developments and provides regulatory support to ensure the compliance of the manufactured products. Beate attained her Doctorate in Technical Chemistry from the Vienna University of Technology, focusing her studies on photochemistry. This background allows her to also deep dive into analytical challenges related to the safety evaluation of packaging materials and used raw materials by closely working with internal and external laboratories.
Eleonora is the reference in the De’Longhi Group for FCM&A compliance topics.
She graduated in Physics, joined the De’Longhi Group in 2009 and gained experience in over 14 years in the Group Quality team: both in Systems Quality than in Product Compliance& Regulatory Affairs.
Her main activities are to assess the impact on De’Longhi Group appliances range of news or updates on food contact materials & articles regulations and to set up a ready to use strategy for R&Ds implementation to prevent compliance break and non-conformities.
As well as to manage and to develop customized FCM&A Testing Protocols fitting the regulations relevant to the De’Longhi Group’s appliances range, the Clients customized requests, the safety and hygienic challenging internal targets for complex finished products.
A strong attitude to optimization and digitalization of processes supports Eleonora in all FCM&A cross function activities.
Eleonora is Issue Manager of the Sub-Group Food Contact Materials of Home Appliances Europe Association (APPLiA).
Koen Weel holds a MSc in Food Technology, and a PhD in flavor science. He has been professionally involved in the safety and compliance of food contact materials since 2004, at first at baby and medical food manufacturer Royal Numico (later Danone). After that he spent a few years as 3rd party auditor at ISACert NL, auditing against international food safety and quality management systems (such as BRC-IOP and ISO22000), mostly in the food packaging industry. In 2012 he joined TNO Triskelion to manage compliance studies for a variety of international clients of all kinds of food contact materials against EU, FDA and National food contact legislations. The job also involved consulting and training in relation to food contact compliance. In 2016 he moved to Danone Specialized Nutrition for a global role in packaging specifications, food safety and regulatory compliance. He currently works for The Coca-Cola Company in Scientific and Regulatory Affairs for Europe focusing on food contact materials. He is the chair the food contact material taskforce of Unesda, the European soft drinks association.
Mark Roberts has worked in the plastics recycling sector for more than 15 years and has a First-Class honours degree in Polymer Science and Technology. He was the Managing Director of a recycling business acquired by Berry in 2018 and now has a central role within Berry CPI with a broad-ranging brief to accelerate and deliver circular economy growth, including providing Technical and Regulatory leadership for the new cutting-edge recycling facility in Leamington Spa, a concept he first brought to the business back in 2019.
After graduating with a master’s degree in biotechnology from the University of Marseille in 2018, Gaëlle Cavalié worked 5 years for a company producing bioplastics in the UK; and joined Normec OWS in June 2023 where she holds the position of Technical Sales Engineer. In this capacity, she is responsible for providing customers with tailored advice on biodegradability and compostability testing and certification. Part of her role also involves staying up to date on the European regulatory landscape concerning biodegradable and compostable products.
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.
José Antonio has been involved in the plastics industry for 35 years, mainly concentrating in the PET sector - virgin PET, co-polyesters, recycling and packaging. He has worked at multinational companies including Eastman, Artenius, and Selenis. In 2022 he started a collaboration with Petcore Europe to work as Secretary of the Functional Barrier Consortium.
José Antonio is CEO of IGBS, dedicated to technical, operational, and business consultancy, with a special focus on the plastic industry. As independent consultant, he has collaborated in the past with Petcore-Europe as coordinator of the Thermoforming Working Group. He also collaborates with Indorama on recycling integration projects.
José Antonio has a degree in Industrial Chemistry from the University of Granada (Spain) and PDD from the Austral University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Dr. Christian Kirchnawy studied food and biotechnology in Vienna. Since his doctor thesis in technical chemistry he is working on the safety assessment of food contact materials and medical devices at the Austrian Research Institute OFI. Today, a special focus of his research is on the safety evaluation of recycled plastic.
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.
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.
Pascal Schmahl is a sector group manager at FCA (Food Contact Additives), a sector group of CEFIC. Where he is actively engaged with both food contact and materials in contact with drinking water legislation. Next to his role in FCA, he is also active in another CEFIC sector group: Biocides For Europe.
Susanna works as a project leader at RISE, with her main focus being the safety of food contact materials and the legislation surrounding those materials. Susanna has long experience from working with FCM safety and regulatory compliance in the paper industry, before joining RISE in 2019.
Mr. Kenny is an experienced regulatory attorney who has worked and consulted for nearly 30 years in the food and consumer products space. A food contact and food additive Subject Matter Expert, Mr. Kenny founded Decernis LLC in 2003, which grew to eventually cover food and consumer products regulations for every country in the world.
Decernis was acquired in June 2019 and Mr. Kenny became a member of the Executive Leadership Team at FoodChain ID in 2020 as SVP Compliance Services. In his final two years, Mr. Kenny worked with industry leaders to build out Packaging Sustainability product- and service offerings for FoodChain ID. He retired from FoodChain ID in April 2024 but continues to consult for them on a part-time basis.
Mr. Kenny recently founded a new online product safety and regulatory training company called Invenimus LLC, which will offer both in person and online global courses on all matters of chemical product safety, food and cosmetics packaging and regulatory compliance.