Take a look at some of the speakers confirmed to present at Plastics and Paper in Contact with Foodstuffs is 2022.
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.
Bio to follow
Tom Gillett advises clients on a wide range of environmental law, with a focus on chemicals regulation and product regimes (including REACH, biocides, food contact, product standards and CE/UKCA marking) in both the EU and the UK.
With a background in complex and technical contentious environmental law (including contaminated land, pollution incidents, environmental permitting and waste regulation), Tom is well placed to help clients navigate regulatory investigations, appeals and tribunal hearings, as well as to advise on regulatory compliance, data sharing, consortium management, and supply chain due diligence.
The Legal 500 UK, 2022, quotes one client as saying "I have worked with Tom Gillett and have found him to be diligent and knowledgeable in this developing area. As well as providing clear advice on a one to one basis, I also find his contributions in seminars and panel discussions useful and valuable."
Tom advises clients on a wide range of environmental and product safety law, with a focus on chemicals and products (including FCM, product standards and labelling, and packaging) in both the EU and the UK. With a background in complex and technical contentious environmental law, Tom assists clients to achieve and maintain market access, and navigate regulatory investigations and hearings.
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.
Erwin Wetzel is both an Austrian and French national. Native speaker in German and French , he is also fluent in English, and has a proficient use of Spanish. He holds two Master Degrees, one in Political Science from the University of Innsbruck, and a Masters of Arts in European Political and Administrative Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. Before working for the EVA, Erwin had several professional experiences, assisting Members of the European Parliament, and the Committee of the Regions. He also worked for the Federation of Austrian Municipalities.
Erwin started his career with the EVA as Regulatory Affairs Manager in February 2011, then worked as Deputy Director in September 2012. He has been the EVA Director General since January 2014.
His main responsibilities are the general management of the Association and the leading of the strategic communication. He is also in charge of several committees & working groups.
You can contact Erwin for any questions and membership enquiries at ew@vending-europe.eu
Lydia studied food chemistry at TU Dresden, Germany. After graduating in 2009, she continued to work at the TU Dresden as a research assistant / PhD candidate in the field of printing inks and contaminants from recycling paper (BPA, optical brightener, PAHs) at the Chair of Food Science and Consumer Products. After her 2nd state examination in 2015, she now works at the Chemical and Veterinary Official Control Laboratory Stuttgart (CVUA Stuttgart) as a laboratory manager in the department of consumer products. Her main area of responsibility is method development in the field of gas chromatography for FCM and non-food products, as well as supervision of the research project to establish mineral oil analysis at CVUA Stuttgart since 2017. She also participates in many national and international committees and is an appointed member of the Commission of Consumer Products of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) since 2018.
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.
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.
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 Ioan Paraschiv is a Group Leader in the global Food & Food Contact Materials (FFCM) Division at knoell, located in the knoell’s Dutch office in Wageningen. He provides regulatory and technical support on food contact materials (FCM) and on final food contact articles, intended to be brought onto markets such as the EU, UK, Switzerland, USA, Canada, Mercosur, China, Japan, South Korea, India and ASEAN countries.
He holds a PhD degree in Physical-Organic Chemistry from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. During the last 7.5 years, Ioan has been presenting at similar events on FCM Regulations, addressing different key FCM markets around the globe. In addition, he also provides FCM regulatory and technical trainings to companies involved in manufacturing food contact substances, FCM-intermediates and final food contact articles.
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
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.
Mark is a global regulatory manager responsible for ensuring that every machine supplied by the Lavazza Group complies with the regulatory compliance requirements of every market in which products are sold. Food contact compliance requirements is key component of this role alongside requirements such EMC, Safety, Radio, Environmental, Sustainability and Energy Efficiency.
Prior to working at Lavazza he spent 25+ years working for TUV SUD and Underwriters laboratories providing a wide range of testing and certification services covering a huge range of products from mobile phones to ejector seats for military aircraft
Ales Bartl advises clients on regulatory compliance of a broad range of products marketed in the EU. Ales primarily
focuses on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), the Classification, Labelling, and
Packaging (CLP) regulation, Biocidal Products Regulation, Fertilizer Regulation, food law, regulation of electronic products, and product safety.
Ales represents clients in the European Courts and in procedures before the Board of Appeal of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). He also represents clients in various proceedings before the ECHA and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as well as before EU and national competent authorities on compliance and enforcement issues, including withdrawals and recalls of unsafe or non-compliant products.
Prior to joining Keller and Heckman, Ales interned at the European Commission and worked for almost ten years as an EU regulatory associate at two international law firms in Brussels.
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.
Scott co-founded Stacks Data (then known as PeerAspect) in 2011 and has been running it ever since. He is skilled in Sustainable Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Issues, and Entrepreneurship and is globally recognized in Life Cycle Analysis (especially as applied to corporate supply chains). He previously developed the curriculum and then taught a graduate-level LCA course at Columbia University, and has also participated in many of the field’s foundational activities over his 15-plus years in supply chain sustainability and compliance. Examples include the development of the WRI GHG Protocol; an early advisory role in the formation of the Sustainability Consortium; and work/partnersihps with dozens of influential companies and organizations such as the Carbon Trust, PepsiCo, and many others.
Scott has a PhD in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University.
Linda is a toxicologist with more than 30 years experience in carrying out toxicological testing and risk assessment of substances. Her work has included providing support for regulatory submissions and related issues for foods, cosmetics, chemicals and biocides including advocacy and lobbying. In addition, she has been responsible for developing company Product Stewardship policies. She has also been actively involved in many trade associations group throughout her career. She has worked for Unilever, Givaudan and for the last 13 years for AkzoNobel. Her current role is as Global Product Safety Manager where she is responsible for a small team of toxicologists providing toxicology, risk assessment and regulatory support.
Bastiaan Schupp works since mid-2011 as legislative officer on food contact materials in DG Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. His main responsibly is the implementation of the specific measures on food contact materials presently in force, particularly on plastics, recycled plastics, and he participates in general policy development on food contact materials. He joined the Commission in 2005 and has worked on various risk related topics, including societal vulnerability to dangerous chemicals and man-made risks. He is a chemical engineer and has a background in risk management.
Kaisa studied pulp and paper technology in Technical University, Helsinki and graduated in 1997. She started her UPM career at the R&D Centre in 1998. Since 2013 she has been working for Responsibility Team at the UPM Head Office mainly concentrating on regulatory topics including food safety and REACH. In 2022 she was appointed Director, Product Stewardship and continues to work with product safety topics, development of sustainable products and sustainability in 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.
A member of the FoodChain ID Executive Leadership Team, Kevin is an experienced regulatory attorney who has worked and consulted in the food and consumer products space for 25 years. He advises some of the world’s largest manufacturers on food additive, food contact and supply chain compliance challenges. He has headed international consulting projects on four continents over two decades and is responsible for the content of FoodChain ID’s regulatory compliance products. Prior to FoodChain ID’s acquisition of Decernis (of which Kevin was a founder), he was responsible for regulatory content and was Executive Director of the global advisory services team.
Dr Marinella Vitulli (51) is the owner and the technical director of Food Contact Center srl.
She has worked in the field of analytical services for 20 years and added expertise in the field of food safety during this time. After obtaining her PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Technology from the Pisa University, Dr Vitulli worked as Researcher in Pisa University, dealing with food and pharmaceutical chemistry.
She took over the position of Quality Control and R&D Manager at Drogheria e Alimentari S.p.A. in 2005, and was in charge as Laboratory Manager in the Intertek Italian Lab, between 2008 and 2010. As Laboratory Director at ECOLSTUDIO spa, Dr Vitulli was responsible for the development and management of the testing capabilities for food, environmental and consumer products.
In her next position she was Laboratory Manager in pH Lab, a member of TÜV SÜD, coordinating the laboratory activity and developing technical services and testing on food, food contact, consumer products and environmental samples.
Dr Marinella Vitulli belongs to the professional association of Chemists “Albo dei Chimici”. Since 2009 she belongs to the Professional Association AIBO - Food Contact Expert” (matr n°035). She cooperates with Italian Packaging Institute taking part in technical committee, and having speech in trainings and many national and international events.
Natalie studied food chemistry at the University of Hohenheim and afterwards condinued with the 2nd state examination to become a state-certified food chemist. Since 2019 she is working at the Chemical and Veterinary Official Control Laboratory in Stuttgart (CVUA Stuttgart) as a laboratory manager in the department of consumer products. The department for consumer products at the CVUA Stuttgart mainly inspects food contact materials, toys, textiles and other body contact materials. Natalie´s main task is to determine the objectives of the investigation based on the composition of the products and the legal assessment of the products according to EU and national regulations following the analysis. In addition, Natalie carries out factory inspections in Baden-Württemberg with the focus of checking the conformity work of the manufacturers.
Mr. Bosma is Dutch, has a background in (organic) chemistry and has a long term experience in regulatory affairs at different companies.
Mr. Bosma is the chairman of the PlasticsEurope Food Contact Expert working group and the Polyolefin working group.
In that role he represents PlasticsEurope at the European Commission and the Dutch Authorities.
As a PlasticsEurope representative he also participates value chain initiatives such as the Plastics Coordination Group (an alliance of the different associations in the plastic value chain) and the Cross Sector group for Regulatory Approaches for Food Contact Materials (FCM) and -Additives (an alliance of plastic and non-plastic representatives of the value chain to provide comments on EFSA opinions and to identify the impact on existing regulations & framework for new regulations for the non-harmonised FCMs)
Mr. Bosma is a frequent speaker at international conferences on food contact.
Justin is Operations Director at the Food Packaging Forum, an independent foundation for science communication and scientific research. He works at the science-policy interface to enable better decision-making by applying the latest science on chemicals in food contact materials and on the environmental impacts of food packaging. After finishing his studies in Environmental Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and North Carolina State University, he worked as a research scientist and project manager focusing on modeling the emissions and fate of fluorinated substances in the environment, mapping the life cycles of endocrine disrupting chemicals, and supporting projects focused on strengthening international science-policy communication. He is a co-author and reviewer of multiple reports for the United Nations Environment Programme on chemicals and waste, has supported scientific discussions within the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, and was the coordinating author of the recent Springer Nature textbook “Chemical Products and Processes” which teaches the environmentally oriented design of chemical products and processes.
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.
