Residues of Food Contact Materials in Food

Zainab Al Harraq is a pharmacist, holding a PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology. She brings experience from previous roles as pharmacologist in Chiesi Pharmaceutics in Parma and at the Humanitas Research Hospital in Milano, and as Toxicologist in Charles River Laboratories in Scotland. She has been Scientific Officer Toxicology within the FCM team of EFSA since 2020.

Thomas Behnke is a Chemist with a long expertise in the field of analytical science and research with focus on method development and instrumental analysis. He has been working at Institut Kirchhoff Berlin, a Mérieux NutriSciences company, since 2017. As Head of Analysis he is responsible for the testing laboratory and the research and development department.

Stefanka Bratinova is an Analytical Chemist and a Scientific Project Officer at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Geel. From 2004 to 2010 she worked on temporary contracts in EURL-FCM in Ispra, joined the Unit of Food Safety at JRC-Geel (former IRMM) in 2012 and returned back to EURL-FCM activities after JRC seized to operate the teams of EURL-PAHs and EURL-Mycotoxins.

Juan-Carlos Carrillo is a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT) with expertise in Bioengineering, Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology and has been working for Shell International in the Netherlands since 2006. As a Senior Toxicologist he is directly responsible for planning, monitoring and interpreting toxicology studies. At industry level, he has been the chairman of industry task forces in Europe dealing with scientific and regulatory issues regarding the safety of petroleum products (CONCAWE and IPIECA) or Chemicals (CEFIC and ECETOC).

Laurence Castle has extensive experience in the field of food contact materials (FCM). He retired from Fera Science UK in 2015. He is a long-standing member of the EFSA Working Group evaluating substances used in FCM.

Riccardo Crebelli is a Toxicologist and has been working as director of research at the Department of Environment and Health of the Italian National Institute of Health. He has been the Director of the Department’s Unit on Mechanisms, Biomarker and Models (MBM) until his retirement in 2020. His expertise focused on regulatory and scientific aspects related to genetic toxicology and environmental mutagenesis. He is currently a member of the EFSA FCM Panel and working groups.

Thomas Letzel is a Chemist and a Founder and a Managing Director of AFIN-TS in Munich, Germany. Thomas brings experience from previous roles at Technical University of Munich (TUM), e.g. as a lecturer and Associate Professor in analytical chemistry and former Head of the Analytical Research Group. Over the past 25 years, he has worked extensively on mass spectrometric analysis across a wide range of research areas, including projects in materials, environmental, and food analysis, as well as pharmaceutical analysis and bioanalysis.

Claudia Lorenz is a biologist and has been working at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) since 2018. In the Unit \"Safety of Food Contact Materials\" she deals with the toxicological assessment of substances used in the manufacture of food contact materials.

Maricel Marin-Kuan is In Vitro Toxicology Specialist within the Nestlé Institute of Food Safety & Analytical Sciences at Nestlé Research in Lausanne-Switzerland. Maricel has been working at Nestlé since 2002, with key scientific contributions in the safety-by-design area bringing in vitro solutions to food quality and safety challenges for prioritization and decision-making. Involved in the packaging safety area since 2010 with the application of multidisciplinary tools to assess the safety of new packaging material using qualified in vitro tools. External collaborations with academia and industry on various food safety issues.

Birgit Mertens obtained her Master in Pharmaceutical Sciences and PhD in Neuropharmacology from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. She joined Sciensano in 2010 and is currently a Senior Toxicologist and team leader of the Risk and Health Impact Assessment Service. She coordinates and participates in multiple (inter)national research projects and activities on the genotoxicity of physical and chemical agents, focusing on food contaminants and developing and applying new approach methodologies. She is the National Coordinator of the Test Methods Programme both at the European and OECD level and the Belgian contact point for the Preliminary Assessment of the Regulatory Relevance of Alternative Methods (PARERE) network. She is also a member of the OECD genotoxicity expert group. She participates in different (inter)national working groups and scientific committees on hazard and risk assessment and is the current president of the Belgian Environmental Mutagenesis Society.

Peter K.T. Oldring is a Regulatory Affairs Manager at Sherwin Williams, based in UK and is actively involved in activities to support the can coating business, including chairing various groups such as cross sector group.

Max Schneider studied environmental chemistry and is currently working as a Project Manager in the FCM (Food Contact Materials Team) team at PTS – Institut für Fasern & Papier in Heidenau, Germany. For the last ten years he took care of the GC laboratory in Heidenau, dealt with customers’ requests of all kind as well as working on different research projects in the field of food contact materials.

Dieter Schrenk has been a Professor for Food Chemistry and Environmental Toxicology at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau 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.

Thomas Simat has been a Professor and the Chair of Food Science and FCM at the Technische Universität Dresden with research on FCM since 2003. He is the Chairman of the ‘German BfR Committee on Consumer Products’’.

Dennis Snelders has a background as chemistry researcher and spent several years as scientist at Triskelion, a food contact materials testing laboratory. In his current role at Danone, he focuses on the food safety and global regulatory compliance of packaging materials for infant and medical food.

Lionel Spack is a Senior Expert Food Contact Materials in Corporate Operation-Quality Management at Headquarter of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A in Vevey. He was previously FCM Expert within the Nestlé Quality Assurance Center (NQAC) supporting the Zone EMENA (Europe, Middle East, North Africa). Earlier he was Packaging QA specialist at the Nestlé Research Center. He is involved in international associations, e.g. in the International Association of Environmental Analytical Chemistry (IAEAC), Schweizerische Verpackungsinstitut-Joint Industry Group and FoodDrinkEurope.

Monika Tönnießen is a Chemist by profession with the degree of doctor in organic chemistry and Head of Food Safety Compliance in the area of Global Food Safety, Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs at Henkel in Düsseldorf. In 1993, she started working for Henkel, in the industrial adhesives division, working on the product development of labeling adhesives. Since 2008, she is part of the product safety department of the adhesive technologies division and deals with customer inquiries. She is an expert on all topics related to food contact. At Henkel, she is the responsible manager for all food contact questions. Monika is a member of the paper and packaging group of the European Adhesive Association (FEICA) and of the technical committee paper/packaging (TKPV) of the German adhesives association IVK.