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.
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
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.
Ruxandra Cana defends industry interests through legal and regulatory challenges to EU market access, before both EU and national institutions and courts. Her practice is focused on EU regulatory law and litigation with a strong emphasis on chemicals and product regulations, such as REACH. She has notable experience and success with related matters concerning emerging issues such as nanotechnology.
She has formed and continues to act as a trusted advisor to more than 30 industry groups. She further brings significant experience in EU rules on biocides and pesticides, cosmetics, medical devices, consumer products, food, and food contact materials.
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Christof Walter is a trained chemist with a PhD in Computational Chemistry. In 2016 he joined the German Paint and Printing Ink Association (VdL) as technical and regulatory affairs officer for Food Contact Materials and Biocides. Since 2021 he serves as head of technology at VdL. Additionally, he is in charge of Food Contact Materials at the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA).
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.
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.
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.
After completing her higher technical education in chemistry, Elisa Mayrhofer studied microbiology at the University of Vienna. For here PhD she joined the Austrian Research Institute for Chemistry and Technology (OFI) in 2018 to work on the development and validation of methods for the safety assessment of unidentified substances in food packaging migrates. Her main focus was the establishment of an in-vitro bioassay-based strategy to detect DNA-reactive mutagens. In the research project “PolyCycle”, where Elisa Mayrhofer was able to take on the role of the project manager, this strategy was successfully applied to analyse recycled polymers to contribute to a safe application of recycled materials in direct food contact. For her achievements in this project she was awarded with the ACR woman award honouring the best scientist in the ACR research network.
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.
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. 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.
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.
Bio to follow
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.
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.
Alexandra Ross has an extensive background in food technology with more than 20 years specialization in food packaging and food safety, among other product-relevant compliance information in applications such as textiles, shoes, hygiene, and furniture. She joined H.B. Fuller in 2009 and is currently responsible for all food contact compliance issues across various adhesive technologies and an expert in sustainability and recycling topics. She is a member of both the German Adhesives Association IVK - being part of the Technical Commission Paper and Packaging -, and FEICA, the European Association for Adhesives and Sealants - where she serves as the chairman of the Technical Working Group “Paper and Packaging” since 2015. Alexandra has been supporting the adhesive industry with thought leadership on upcoming regulations and issuing guidelines and many position papers. She’s also an experience speaker who has given numerous lectures and presentations at specialized conferences and forums in Europe.
