Food Contact Regulations USA 2021

Terry has spent more than 15 years as a reporter, editor and digital news team leader providing information for legal and regulatory professionals across a variety of topics, including health care, clean energy and climate change, occupational health and toxic substances. He joined Chemical Watch News & Insight in 2020.

Sean Fischer is a regulatory review scientist with the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Office of Food Additive Safety at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Sean’s responsibilities include coordinating the review of food contact notifications and requests for threshold of regulation exemptions.

Dr. Elena Emelianova has 15 years of experience on regulatory assessment and compliance of food contact materials and chemical products used in food processing by working as a scientific evaluator of Federal Ministry of Health in Canada.  She received her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry, and has a scientific background in analytical, environmental and polymer chemistry.

Phil is a 25 year veteran of the plastics industry. He has led product stewardship and innovation for a variety of regulated products along the plastic chemistry value chain, from monomers, treatments, and additives to spun and molded articles as well as converted products for consumer, medical, and food use.

Deborah helps businesses throughout the supply chain with the legal and regulatory compliance of human and pet food, animal feed, food contact materials and packaging, over-the-counter drugs, and medical devices.

Dr. Pace is a scientist with broad experience in global regulatory affairs, analytical laboratory services and operations, food packaging materials testing, and product stewardship. Within the expansive environment of regulatory packaging compliance, he has specialized expertise in chemical migration assessments and analytical testing of food-contact and sensitive packaging materials, focusing on migratory substances from printing inks and packaging chemical compositions. Dr. Pace routinely conducts migration and exposure assessments of packaging materials according to regulations of the U.S. FDA, the EU Commission, and California Proposition 65.

Mike Schade is the Seinor Director of Programs and Strategy at Toxic-Free Future. Since 2013, Mike led Toxic-Free Future’s Mind the Store program challenging retailers to shift the marketplace away from hazardous chemicals and develop comprehensive safer chemicals policies. Prior to joining TFF Mike was Markets Campaign Coordinator with the Center for Health Environment & Justice (CHEJ) where he led campaigns to phase out PVC plastic, phthalates, and bisphenol A in consumer products and packaging, and led the Buffalo office of a statewide environmental health organization. He has a BS in Environmental Studies from the University at Buffalo.

George Misko is one of the firm's Food and Drug practice group leaders. Mr. Misko's practice focuses on food and drug matters and environmental concerns, including pesticide regulation, right-to-know laws, and toxic substance control regulations.

Rae Eaton is the Chemical Hazard & Alternatives Assessment Specialist in the Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction programme at the Washington State Department of Ecology. Their work identifying and evaluating alternatives to chemicals of concern supports Washington’s progress towards improving the safety of consumer products. Rae holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Washington.

Kimberly Goetz has served as the Legislative Coordinator for the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Hazardous Waste and Toxics Reduction Program since 2008. She coordinates legislative activities for a variety of issues related to toxic chemicals, hazardous wastes, environmental justice, and financial responsibility.

Carol Brophy is a seasoned litigator representing clients in environmental law, administrative law, and state and federal litigation. She represents a wide range of companies in matters involving federal and California laws including Proposition 65, California Unfair Trade Practice (UCL), the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the California Clean Air Act, the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and other state and local regulations.

Kathryn (Katie) Skaggs is an expert in the regulation of food contact materials in a host of jurisdictions including the U.S., EU, South America (particularly the MERCOSUR bloc), Canada, China, eastern Asia, India, the Middle East (GCC), Australia, and New Zealand.

John Ortiz is Vice President of Inks and Chief Sustainability Officer at Memjet.  In this role he guides the strategy, development, and manufacturing of inks and coatings used in the company’s VersaPass, DuraLink, and DuraFlex technologies and future technologies.

Brandi has a degree in Biochemistry from Virginia Tech and nearly 6 years of experience within the regulatory world.   She has experience in global regulatory compliance support for all types of food contact materials, including US FDA, European Union, China, and Mercosur. 

Maryann Sanders has a M.S. in Occupational and Environmental Health from Wayne State University and has worked in Product Stewardship for 25 years. Her work tenure has included time at BASF, NSF International and global consulting firms.

Dr Bernard Hegarty is Director of Enforcement Policy with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. He manages the official food control programmes, including the controls on national and EU laws on food contact materials. He represented Ireland at the European Commission’s Working Group on Food Contact Materials, which develops the harmonised European legislation, from 2000 to 2009. He co-chaired the Council working group that developed Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004. He chaired the Council of Europe’s Committee of Experts on food contact materials from 2006 to 2007. He has a BSc and a PhD in Chemistry and an MA in Public Management.

Catherine Nielsen, a senior partner in Keller and Heckman’s Food and Drug practice, specializes in counseling domestic and foreign corporations on the legal compliance of food additives and food-contact materials world-wide. 

Mr. Ioan Paraschiv, next to managing the capacity within FFCM Division, provides regulatory and technical support on registration of food contact materials (FCM) in EU, USA, China and Mercosur. He holds a PhD degree in Physical-Organic Chemistry from Wageningen University, the Netherlands.