Sustainable Food Contact Materials Europe 2025

Kim joined Enhesa Product Intelligence in 2023 and is responsible for overseeing and developing analytical content, tools and training courses to assist the industry in navigating through complex compliance frameworks for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Bastiaan Schupp is the Team Leader for Food Contact Materials in DG Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. In the context of food safety, his main responsibly is the implementation of the specific measures on food contact materials presently in force, with a focus on the framework Regulation, plastic and recycled plastic food contact materials. Bastiaan is educated as a chemical engineer, and has a background in risk management.

Hazel O'Keeffe is a Partner in Keller and Heckman LLP’s Brussels office. She 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 (including plastics, paper and paperboard, printing inks, coatings, adhesives, silicones and rubber) at both EU and national level. She has extensive experience in preparing food contact petitions for submission to the European Food Safety Authority (‘EFSA’) and to Member State authorities, such as the German Institute of Risk Assessment (‘BfR’). Hazel also 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, and recycling and green claims.

As chemical policy expert, Antonia supports the work of CHEM Trust related to the revision and implementation of the REACH and CLP regulation as well as product-related legislation, such as on food contact materials. Furthermore, she works on the use of human biomonitoring data in regulatory decision making. Antonia has been on the Management Board of CHEM Trust Europe since December 2018. Apart from her work for CHEM Trust, Antonia implements projects on chemicals management as a freelance consultant.

Neil Finley graduated in Chemical Engineering from University of Manchester’s Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1986 and has held various roles in the chemical industry for over 30 years.

Etienne is the Engagement Director at the Food Packaging Forum. He is responsible for creating and supporting opportunities for collaboration and engaging with stakeholders to ensure real impact. He also leads the ongoing development of the Understanding Packaging (UP) Scorecard. 

As a Technical Manager at EuPC, Alessa specializes in legislation on contact-sensitive and food contact plastics. Since 2025, she is managing the EuPC Sector Group CFREP (Contact-Sensitive & Food Contact Plastics Regulatory Expert Panel) and the EuPC PFAS Working Group, while continuing to support other projects focused on recycling and sustainability.

Miguel Angel Prieto Arranz, is a chemist by training, and is currently the Director of the “Food & feed”- and “Plastic Additives”-clusters in Cefic (the European Chemical Industry Council). He is the responsible Sector Group manager for “FCA” –Food Contact Additives. Before joining Cefic, he worked for four years in FoodDrinkEurope (the association of the European food and drink manufacturing industries) as food policy, science and R&D manager. Prior to that, he worked as R&D manager at the Technology Transfer Center Bremerhaven (ttz-Bremerhaven) in Germany.

Dr. Passarella is an expert strategist in navigating international chemical regulations.  At Intertek, she uses her chemical and legal experience and skill at interpreting complex chemical regulations to design and implement effective policies to protect client’s products.  During her career, Dr. Passarella has advocated for sustainable chemical management to enable the manufacture and sale of products in US and global markets. After completing her Ph.D. in chemistry, she formulated products, managed R&D groups, and managed global Product Stewardship and Sustainability. It was during this time that she pursued a law degree at night school, and is licensed to practice law in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  Her combination of industry experience, and an in-depth knowledge of chemistry and the law enables her to translate regulatory trends and requirements into business and compliance action plans.

Anne-Sophie Moriceau is a pharmacist toxicologist with Intertek's Assuris department in France. She specializes in the regulatory and safety compliance assessment of materials and packaging for cosmetics and food contact, including those made from recycled plastics. Anne-Sophie is also working on submitting dossiers to the authorities to obtain approval for the use of recycled plastics in food contact applications.

Dr. Driffield has 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 such as plastics, coatings and printing inks, and fuels.

Beate has accumulated over 15 years of expertise as the Head of Regulatory Affairs, where she manages the safety and compliance of packaging materials for Constantia Flexibles worldwide. She follows global regulatory developments in the area of contact sensitive packaging and provides regulatory support to ensure the compliance of the manufactured products.

Jochen has several years of experience in regulatory affairs, having worked in multinational companies in the food and ingredient sector. His responsibilities included the assessment of raw materials and finished products, the interpretation of European and international regulatory requirements, as well as the handling of food law-related inquiries, audits, and interactions with authorities.

Iacopo Zonca advises on EU product compliance matters, focusing on EU chemicals regulation, as well as litigation before the EU and national courts. Since 2019, Iacopo has counseled clients on EU chemical matters, such as the renewal of approval of active substances under the Plant Protection Products Regulation, the classification of industrial products under the CLP Regulation (classification, labelling, and packaging), and the review of authorizations under the REACH Regulation. 

Marion Kerestedjian has been with Enhesa since 2021 and proudly supports the team as the Subject Matter Expert in Sustainability & ESG. She holds an LLM Degree in Environmental Law.

Rainer Fürsich is Sustainability Manager at Cepi, the European association representing pulp and paper manufacturers where he is responsible for various food contact compliance topics related to the association’s members. He manages the FCM issue group, which combines the expertise of over 30 FCM pulp and paper specialists from Cepi’s membership. Rainer holds a degree in European Public Policy and has previously worked in the European Parliament on sustainability related issues.

Food chemist Dr Ulrich Nehring is Managing Director of Nehring Consultants. For 25 years until 2017 Ulrich Nehring was working as Managing Director and scientific head of independent testing laboratory Institut Nehring. Dr Nehring is also Chairman of the Food Contact Working Group of the German Verband Metallverpackungen (the German metal packaging industry association) and is a member of the Metal Packaging Europe (MPE) food contact working group as well as of T-JIG.

Willem van Veen is Senior Advisor Sustainability and Food Contact at inDUfed, the Belgian federation of the paper and glass industry. As an engineer, he works mainly on sustainability, packaging, recycling, the circular economy and food safety. He is a guest lecturer on these topics at the University of Ghent and the University of Hasselt. Willem van Veen is also a board member of Fost Plus, Filpap and the Belgian Packaging Institute.

Dr. Klatt graduated as Ph.D. of Science from University of Goettingen in 1992. From 1992 until 1995 he was working at University of Goettingen as Senior Scientist. In 1995 he joined BASF SE and started in polymer research in the field of engineering plastics and flame retardants for polymers. After an interim research position from 2007 until 2014, Dr. Klatt returned to the field of product safety and took over the product stewardship group of dispersions and resins. He represents BASF in various associations including the European association for dispersions (EPDLA) and the European manufacturer of Acrylate based UV/EB Resins (UVEB). Dr. Klatt was one of the founders of the initiative of CEPI and ECPG to align on an internet-based questionnaire for information transfer along the value chain. He currently is President of the two CEFIC Sector groups EPDLA and UVEB and of ALIPA.