Food Contact is one of Smithers oldest and most established conferences. It has been running under the name of ‘Plastics and Paper in Contact with Foodstuffs’ in Europe since the 1980’s! In more recent times Smithers have launched additional versions as Global Food Contact which provides a global round up of food contact regulations around the world and more specific regional editions such as Food Contact USA and now Food Contact Asia.The number of attendees once again demonstrates that this conference has to be on the must do list for any person involved in the regulatory aspects of food contact packaging"
-R. BROUGHTON, AMCOR
Tom Carr has been in the Plastic Packaging Industry for 28 years, beginning his career with Trigon Packaging Systems in 1991 as a BSc(Tech) Student. Working in the Research and Development lab of their Hamilton plant, he became proficient in film analysis and physical properties testing of plastic packaging. In 2009, he ventured into the world of packaging regulatory compliance. Mentored by Sealed Air’s Regulatory Directors in Europe (Dario Dainelli) and America (Martin Ecoff), the learning curve was steep, but rewarding, eventually overseeing the compliance needs for Sealed Air’s Australia/New Zealand products, predominantly for Fonterra and the NZ Meat industry.
In 2015, Tom moved his family to Palmerston North to join Fonterra’s Packaging innovation and Development Team as a Senior Packaging Technologist at Fonterra’s Research and Development Centre. For the past 5 years Tom has overseen packaging compliance for Fonterra’s local and export business.
Fun fact: Tom is passionate about Litter reduction, and was Keep New Zealand Beautiful’s “Tidy Kiwi Award for 2017”, for picking up over 1300kg of litter since 2015. Tom is New Zealand’s leading user of the Litterati App, having snapped, tagged and bagged over 35,000 pieces of Litter since April 2017.
Coming soon...
Marco has been involving in safety of food contact materials for more than 20 years, which specialized in analysis and assessment of Chemical contaminants in food contact materials. He has been serving as an expert in various organizations, such as the member of Review Committee for National Food Safety Standards, The member of Standardization Committee for plastic food contact material, paper and board, etc. To date, he has published more than 60 papers on food contact materials in journals and academic conferences ,while completed 20 national safety standards and analytical methods. He is currently leading the team to draft Chinese regulations for multilayer articles, wood and bamboo, Paper and paper board, as well as various analytical methods for specific migration. He once participated in a FCMs programs In 2008 as a visiting scientist at JRC of European Commission.
Marco was also appointed as the chairman of Expert committee for FCMs in China food industry association, and the member of Scientific Committee (SC) for the 7th International Food Packaging Symposium organized by ILSI Europe , dedicated to assist government agencies and industry to manage the safety of FCMs with scientific support.
David Ettinger is the chief representative in Keller and Heckman’s Shanghai, China office. Mr. Ettinger counsels multinational companies on the import and export of food and food-related products to ensure compliance with regulations in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He also counsels clients on compliance with the laws and regulations in China regarding consumer products and tobacco-related products, such as e-cigarettes. Mr. Ettinger worked in the firm’s Washington, DC and Brussels offices, and is uniquely positioned to counsel foreign companies who need to navigate the regulatory landscape in Asia.
Mr. Ettinger is on the Executive Board and Chair of Mackrell International. He is on the leadership committee of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai’s Food, Agriculture & Beverage Committee. He is a frequent lecturer and author on international food safety matters. Mr. Ettinger is a Chambers and Partners ranked attorney in the area of Life Sciences (International Firms) – China and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® since 2016 (FDA Law).
Prior to joining Keller and Heckman, Mr. Ettinger was a trademark attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Additionally, he has extensive trial experience as a former assistant district attorney in the Nassau County District Attorney's Office in New York where he prosecuted felonies and misdemeanors.
Sylvain Rannou holds a PhD of Polymer Science & Engineering from The University of Manchester, UK.
With over 10 years’ experience in the polymer and food packaging industry in UK and Singapore, his expertise covers a range of functions, from packaging development, polymer processing & regulatory compliance, to training & coaching, issue management and networking to leverage expertise.
Having worked in R&D for Mars Drinks UK and A*STAR Singapore, his current responsibility within Nestlé is to ensure that Nestlé factories in zone Asia-Oceania-Africa (AOA) implement the Nestlé packaging safety & compliance (PS&C) program. His responsibility covers both food contact materials (i.e. mainly packaging) and non-food items (i.e. promotional items).
Miao Hong has been engaged in food safety risk assessment and management for many years, and has rich working experience in diet exposure assessment and human health research, national standard formulation, food safety emergency response, etc. At present, she is committed to control the risk of on-line catering food safety according to the framework of food safety risk, improve the nutritional health management level of local life service merchants, and provide nutritious and healthy food for on-line caterting consumers. At the same time, she is a member of Committee on Risk Assessment of Traditional Chinese Medicine of the State Pharmacopoeia Commission, member of the committee of food authenticity and traceability Chinese of Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST), standing member of Collaborative Innovation Community of Catering Industry Nutrition Management of China Nutrition Society, plastic products branch of Technical Committee of China Food Contact Materials and Products Standardization, and expert member of Food Safety and Information Traceability Branch of China Non-staple Food Circulation Association.
Linda Zhu is a senior Manager of Quality Systems and Compliance for Greater China in HAVI, who has been leading quality, food safety and compliance for food packaging over 20 years by managing nearly 50 food packaging suppliers for McDonald’s Greater China market.
Linda is a standing member of the China FCM Expert Committee of CFIA. She set up the regulation work-groups and anticipatory issue management teams with upstream and down stream supplier network and promote a proactively regulatory compliance and food safety assurance culture in McDonald’s packaging supplier system. Linda received Outstanding Contribution Award from McDonald’s China and Hong Kong in 2019 and a series of awards in HAVI in past years.
Sven Wu, as the material specialist and manages De’Longhi Group China OEM supplier chain for more than 4 years. He has been engaged in the kitchen appliance industry for more than 10 years and has extensive experience in the materials processing such as plastic, metal stamping, die-casting, silicone, painting, assembly etc. As well as the project management, quality control and regulations.
With the profound understanding of the kitchen appliance industry, regulations and the process, he has organized the resources of customers and supply chain then set up the GMP (good manufacturing practice) audit program and implemented in key suppliers and the feedback was excellent.
He is also supporting head office to define the test approach for some product categories and specific markets, according to the Group guideline of materials risk assessment.
Joined Dow Chemical since 2003 and engaged in product safety and regulatory compliance during last 17 years crossing multiple businesses. Has extensive experience and in regulatory fields of many product such as general chemical, food/food contact etc. and rich knowledge of product risk assessment. Over years, participated many advocacy projects of product regulations-pharmaceutical DMF regulation, cosmetic material management and food contact national standard etc., also played some leadership roles in local industrial associations-Vice Chair of IPEC (China)(2009-2011), Multiple Food Contact Product Taskforce Leaders in AICM (2011-2017) , and vice chair in Food Contact Expert Committee under China National Food Industry Association (2015-2017). Transferred to current role to take accountability of product compliance and safety stewardship for all Dow P&SP portfolios in pan-Asia since 2016.
Mr. Mitsuhiko Shigekura has been the executive director of Japan Hygienic Olefin and Styrene Plastics Association, one of the operating bodies of voluntary restraints in Japan, since 2014. He joined to the Japanese Government in 1986 and in charge of the policy of industrial development, chemical substances, global environment, R&D etc. in Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries as well as Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. He also worked in JETRO, NITE and AIST, and was a professor of Kyushu University in 2010-2013.
Ms. Crystal Liu, is a regulatory specialist, who is responsible for food contact group in Intertek HERS China. She is focusing on China food contact compliance and petition including formulation review and compliance testing. As the coordinator working with global Intertek regulatory teams, she offers global food contact compliance and notification service especially for US, EU, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and Mercosur, to match the requests by local clients. She, with technical expertise and project experience, assists clients to do China food-related product petition for new substance intended to be used in food contact materials and articles, US food contact notification (FCN) and US recycled plastic clearance. In addition, Ms. Crystal is studying Japan food contact regulation system and updates of new positive lists effective on June 1, 2020. She has rich experience on submitting opinions of positive lists to MHLW and how to do compliance in accordance to voluntary standards of Japan industry associations, such JHOSPA, JAIA.
Education: MBA in Sustainability & Leadership/BSc in Biology & Chemistry
Working experiences:
20years in Chemical Industry in the areas of Product Safety & Regulatory Affairs, and Safety Health, Environment & Quality Management, Manufacturing and Engineering.
