Brand new for this year, the event will take place across a series of three online events with each one having a regional focus - Europe, Asia and USA.
Event Focusing on Europe
🗓️ Thursday 21 May 2026
🕑 14:00 - 17:00 CEST / 13:00 - 16:00 BST / 08:00 - 12:00 EDT
Details for the online events focusing on Asia and the US will be coming soon... Sign up to the mailing list here to be notified as soon as more information is available.
About Global Food Contact
This event aims to provide a comprehensive overview of key regulatory and compliance developments affecting global food contact materials.
It will cover the latest EU regulatory updates, including insights into the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), alongside a broader global regulatory outlook.
The programme will address emerging legislation on inks, evolving restrictions on substances such as PFAS and BPA, and practical approaches to demonstrating compliance.
In addition, discussions will explore NIAS testing and risk assessment methodologies, as well as specific considerations for materials in food contact applications, offering participants a well-rounded understanding of current challenges and expectations across the food contact supply chain.
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Ms. Maxwell, Research Fellow in Corporate Scientific and Regulatory Affairs at Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc. brings expertise in global finished foods labeling and claims as well as additives and flavors. Prior to Ocean Spray, she led the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs management function at Nestle USA responsible for all the retail/food service brands for North America. Her employment history includes Director-level global regulatory compliance group management at Cargill, Inc., Wild Flavors, Inc. as well as McCormick & Company and Givaudan where she describes her role as managing, motivating, coordinating and influencing multi-disciplinary functions to accomplish strategic business goals, anticipating regulatory obstacles/emerging issues throughout product lifecycle and developing solutions with other technical/commercial teams across global geographies (essentially herding cats!).
Ms. Maxwell is a proud graduate of University of Illinois – Champaign/Urbana with BS degree in Food Science and additional post graduate study in Carbohydrate Chemistry.
Always lively and engaging, Ms. Maxwell turns conventional wisdom on its ear using comprehensive data that offers a compelling look at new regulatory trends. Her insights are drawn in part from Washington DC colleagues, as well as her global network “cabinet” of industry professionals and the occasional bureaucrat.
Xiaolu Wang is a Senior Research Manager at AgencyIQ’s Chemicals division. Xiaolu is a licensed attorney in New York state, the District of Columbia, and China (inactive) with over 10 years of experience in environmental, health, and safety (EHS) legislation and product regulatory compliance.
Before joining AgencyIQ, Xiaolu conducted in-depth research and analysis of EHS and product safety legislation on a global scale, focusing on North America and Asia Pacific. She also led regulatory consulting projects covering a wide range of products, including chemicals, food contact materials, cosmetics, food, and electronic and electrical equipment.
Scientific and Regulatory Affairs | Mars Wrigley | Europe and Central Eurasia.
Jeremy Hooper leads the Scientific and Regulatory Affairs team for Northern & Southern Europe at Mars Wrigley. Over the past 2.5 years, he has overseen scientific and regulatory affairs activity for food contact materials and food contaminants across the Europe region.
Jeremy's expertise in food contact safety and quality dates to 2011 when he moved into food & non-food packaging at Tesco. He later worked at Domino Printing on FCM regulatory compliance and at Loop (TerraCycle), where he developed processes and facilities for the safe reuse of food and consumer packaging.
Before moving into the food packaging sector, Jeremy spent 17 years working in food quality, safety, and product development with Campbell Soups and Tesco, in the UK and international businesses. He is an active member of the Food Contact Material (FCM) committees for FoodDrinkEurope and the UK Food and Drink Federation (FDF), where he is engaged with evolving EU and UK regulations on packaging safety and substances of concern.
In July 2021 Carlos de la Cruz Garcia took the role of Regulatory and Compliance Manager at the Nestlé System Technology Center in Switzerland, dealing with the compliance by design of new Nestlé Systems (e.g. beverage machines and packaging/capsules). In 2014 he became Head of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for Nespresso at its HQ in Switzerland, dealing with the compliance of the food and non-food product portfolio. He joined the Nestlé Research Centre in Switzerland in 2003, starting in the Research area, moving into different positions with increased responsibility for quality and safety of food contact materials (Nestlé Nutrition HQ, Nestlé Product Technology Center for Coffee, Nestlé System Technology Center).
A licentiate in Pharmacy, with a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and Nutrition, Carlos has been involved in the safety evaluation of food contact materials since 2000, working with universities and research centers in Spain, France and USA.
Päivi Harju-Eloranta has a Master’s degree in Chemistry. She has worked in Stora Enso more than 30 years in various positions. Päivi has wide experience in product and packaging development, technical marketing, sustainability and product safety. Current responsibility as a Director, Product Stewardship, means involvement in food safety, compliance topics and regulatory affairs
Alistair is a subject matter expert in the Food Contact Safety Team at 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 South America.
