Contaminants and Residues in Food

Thomas Bessaire is a Chemist and an Analytical Specialist in Chemical Contaminants at Nestlé Research Center in Lausanne. He supports Nestlé businesses by providing analytical methods and scientific expertise for chemical contaminants analysis in foods. He is a member of the European CEN Panel Experts on Biotoxins, and joined several working groups at AOAC International.

Sara C. Cunha, Ph.D. in Nutrition and Food Chemistry from the University of Porto, Portugal, is a Principal Research Scientist at LAQV-REQUIMTE. An expert in water, food, and environmental contaminants, she has developed innovative chromatographic techniques for detecting mycotoxins (patulin, tricothecenes, ochratoxin A, aflatoxins, ennantins), pesticide residues, industrial processing contaminants (acrylamide, biogenic amines, 4-methylimidazole), migrant packing contaminants (bisphenols, phthalates), and environmental contaminants (UV-filters, triclosan, PAHs, pharmaceutical residues, musks, brominated flame retardants, perfluorinated compounds). Her research also includes studying bioaccessibility, bioavailability, endocrine disruption, the impacts of climate change, and microplastics on environmental health. She has published over 195 articles in peer-reviewed journals (H-index 51) and contributed to 16 book chapters. She has extensive experience leading European projects (e.g., group leader, HORIZON CisWEFE-NEX, H2020 SEAFOODtomorrow, FP7 ECsafeSEAFOOD, Interreg Spain-Portugal FoodSens) and National projects (e.g. PI of CleanH2O, EDCs-Seafood).

Michael Hellwig studied Food Chemistry between 1999 and 2004 at Technische Universität Dresden (Germany) and obtained his PhD in 2011. In his post-doc time, he worked on the microbial metabolization of glycated amino acids. In 2016, he became PI in Dresden and intensified his studies on the chemistry of protein oxidation. From 2020-2022, he was a professor of Food Chemistry at Technische Universität Braunschweig (Germany), before he returned to Dresden in 2022 as a professor of Special Food Chemistry.

Inga Hennies, PhD, is an Ecotrophologist and joined the Quality Assurance Unit at H. & J. Brüggen KG in 2009. Since 2012 she has been the Head of Quality Internal Processes and became Transformation Manager in 2023. She is also a member of the Getreidenährmittelausschuss of AGF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Getreideforschung).

Kata Héjjas is a Food Engineer with over 5 years of experience in the food industry. She joined Specialised Nutrition Europe (SNE) in 2022 as a Regulatory and Scientific Affairs Manager and is responsible for food safety, food additives and slimming and sport foods working groups.

Shaun MacMahon is currently the Acting Director for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Human Foods Program (HFP) Office of Scientific Coordination and Computational Sciences and has served in several different roles as a laboratory analyst and in leadership since joining the FDA in 2003. He is active in FDA’s Method Development, Validation, and Implementation Program, HFP’s Closer to Zero efforts, as well as the Laboratory Flexible Funding Model (LFFM), a cooperative agreement with 55 state human and animal food testing laboratories in 40 states in support of an integrated food safety system in the U.S.

Angela Mally is a Professor of Toxicology at the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Würzburg in Germany. Her research focuses on understanding molecular mechanisms of disease related to toxic/carcinogenic chemicals and natural food contaminants (e.g. the ochratoxin A, furan) as a basis for risk assessment. As a member of the DFG Standing Senate Commission on the Health Evaluation of Food (SKLM) and the Commission on Contaminants in the Food Chain at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), Angela Mally acts in an advisory capacity and also contributes her toxicological expertise to various international working groups (e.g. ILSI Europe, EFSA). She serves as editor-in-chief of the international scientific journal Toxicology Letters.

Alexandre Panchaud is currently the Head of the Institute for Food Safety & Analytical Science at Nestlé Research in Lausanne. Alexandre has 20 years of experience in the food industry and has held several R&D and quality management positions within Nestlé.

Elena Rovesti is a Chartered Environmental Scientist currently working as a Scientific Officer in the Feed and Contaminants unit at the European Food Safety Authority in Parma (Italy) where she is primarily responsible for coordinating working groups of experts for the elaboration of risk assessments for the presence of undesirable substances in food and feed. She graduated in Environmental Sciences at the University of Parma in 2003 with a thesis on chemical risk assessment for the presence of contaminants in soils and groundwater. Since then, risk assessment and contamination have been at the centre of her professional activity. She worked, mainly in the UK, developing thorough understanding on contamination characterisation, fate and transport of contaminants, risk assessment modelling and remediation, starting from extensive field work. Before joining EFSA, Elena also worked as a regulator at the Environment Agency for England and Wales (UK) in the position of Groundwater and Contaminated Land Technical Officer.

Sina Röhrs studied Medical Nutritional Sciences and Nutritional Medicine at the University of Lübeck and is currently pursuing her doctorate at TU Berlin in the field of \"Predictive Risk Assessment of Food Using AI-Based Data Models.\" Additionally, she has been working for about three years as a Sales Consultant in the Health and Nutrition sector at SGS Germany in Hamburg, Germany.

Dieter Schrenk has been a Professor for Food Chemistry and Environmental Toxicology at the University of Kaiserslautern since 1996. In 2005 he took on the full professorship for Food Chemistry and Toxicology. He joined the EFSA CONTAM Panel in 2003 where he was the Chair from 2018 to 2024.

Richard Stadler has been the Head of the Institute for Food Safety & Analytical Science at Nestlé in Lausanne from 2017 to 2024. Previously, he held several research and quality management positions within Nestlé. He was also the Chairman of the FoodDrinkEurope contaminants expert group. Since 2024 he has been working as a Scientific Advisor at Nestlé Research.

Xanthippe Theurillat is an Analytical Chemist and a specialist in the Analytical Science Department in the field of food contaminants at Nestlé Research in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 2012, she joined the Regional Swiss Official Food Control Laboratory in Lausanne as a scientific expert in the contaminants section. Since 2015, she is working at the Nestlé Research in Lausanne with a specific focus on the method development in the domain of contaminants, like pesticides, emerging and process contaminants and lately PFAS. Moreover, she participated in projects for the mechanistic understanding of process contaminants which allowed to publish subsequently patent applications.

Bas van der Velden leads the Data Science team at Wageningen Food Safety Research. With over 10 years of hands-on experience in machine learning and deep learning, he specialises in explainable AI (XAI), making complex models more transparent for high-stakes domains like food safety. He holds a PhD in Medical Imaging from Utrecht University and an MSc in Medical Engineering from Eindhoven University of Technology. Bas has worked at leading institutions, including UC Berkeley and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He currently oversees a team of 20+ AI and data science experts focused on food safety.