Food Contact Regulations Europe 2024

Charmaine is Head of Content (Events) for Chemical Watch Events & Training by Enhesa, leading the development and execution of content strategy across global conferences. Previously, as well as market intelligence roles at consultancies AMI and Zenith Global, she has worked in industry including Danone and Amcor.

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.

Dr. Gernot Strehl is Head of Food Contact Technical Expert Team, Federation of the European Cookware, Cutlery and Houseware Industries (FEC). He joined Zwilling in 2012. Since then he has been involved via FEC in food contact testing and participating in discussions on food contact on an European level.

Dorota holds PhD degrees in Biology (Biochemistry) and in Biomedical Sciences (Nanotoxicology). Prior to joining Zero Waste Europe (ZWE), Dorota was leading the Safer Chemicals programme at Health Care Without Harm Europe, and worked for the European Commission (DG Joint Research Center) and at the Department of Public Health of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium). At ZWE, Dorota's work focuses on the topic of non-toxicity of products and packaging (food packaging in particular), and clean and effective material cycles needed for achievement of a truly circular economy.

Malene has been with Coop since 2001 and has played a key role in developing the company’s chemical policy and product requirements. She currently works at Coop Trading, where she serves as Quality Assurance lead for food and near-food private label products across the Nordic region.

Cristina is Business Developer and Project Manager for the Product Safety & Sustainability Area at Ecol Studio. This involves a number of roles, such as Regulatory Affair Manager, FCMs and Sustainability, Technical Account Manager for international Customers and Coordinator of the Sustainability Area.

Claudia is an experienced Compliance Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the food & beverages industry. Skilled in Polymers, Product Safety, Regulatory Requirements, and Continuous Improvement. Research Doctorate focused in Biochemistry from Università degli Studi di Ferrara. Claudia joined Nestlé in 2014, and in 2020 became Packaging Regulatory Manager.

Dario has a Doctor degree in Polymer Chemistry from the University of Pisa, as well as a Masters in Food Legislation from Michigan State University

Preslava Dilkova advises on EU regulatory compliance cases, focusing on EU chemicals regulation, including REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals), the CLP Regulation (classification, labelling, and packaging), and the Biocidal Products Regulation. In the EU product law area, Preslava's practice covers product recalls related to food, food contact materials, plastics, packaging, electronics, medical devices, construction products, and waste and recycling. Preslava's extensive experience also includes advising on occupational health and safety issues, general product safety, product liability, EU standardization, and technical harmonization.

Koen Weel is a food technologist by education and has 20 years of experience in the safety and compliance of food contact materials. After finishing his PhD at NIZO food research, he joined baby and medical food manufacturer Royal Numico. After that he spent a few years as 3rd party auditor in the food packaging industry at ISACert NL. Then he joined TNO Triskelion to manage food contact compliance studies, followed by a global role in packaging specifications, food safety and regulatory compliance at Danone Specialized Nutrition. He currently works for The Coca-Cola Company Europe in Scientific and Regulatory Affairs focusing on food contact materials. He is chairing the food contact material taskforce of the European soft drinks association Unesda.

Holding a Master in Chemical Engineering specialised in Materials and Processes, Mathilde's graduation research on the development of PP recyclates from old household appliances led her to the plastic recycling world. After working as a Plastics engineer at WEEE recycling facility, she is now focused on the chemicals and food contact legislation as well as on R&D projects at Plastics Recyclers Europe. Her commitment goes towards finding solutions for plastics end of life and the path to valorise those into a new life. Continuously adapting and innovating to overcome challenges are the key facets of her job, in this constantly growing recycling field.

Paula is Product Safety & Compliance Manager for Huhtamaki Fiber Foodservice EAO where she is responsible for various food contact compliance topics related to the company’s fiber and foodservice products. Her previous experience includes food contact compliance and research roles at companies including Measurlabs. ViskoTeepak, Kemira and Stora Enso.

15+ years working in specialist information and events including product safety, chemicals compliance and metals. Joining Chemical Watch in 2018 and leading the brand transition to Enhesa, Ryan currently heads up the go-to-market strategy for Enhesa Product.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. Additionally, he is in charge of Food Contact Materials at the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA)

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.

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.

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.