Residues of PFAS in Food, Packaging and the Environment

Klaus Abraham is a Senior Toxicologist at the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). He is head of the unit \"Nutritional Risks and Biomarkers\". The group's research focuses on studies in humans with regard to kinetics, internal exposure and toxicology.

Frauke Averbeck is working in the Unit “Evaluation of Chemicals and Risk Management” at the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) in Dortmund/Germany. Amongst other tasks in the context of the REACH Regulation she is coordinating the German authorities’ work as well as co-leading, together with her Dutch colleagues, the common efforts of the five Member States proposing a comprehensive ban of PFASs under the REACH Regulation.

Alexander Eckhardt is a Biologist and regulatory scientist at the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in Bad Elster/Germany in the sub-department “Toxicology of Drinking Water and Swimming Pool Water”. Since 2015 he has been a specialist toxicologist of the DGPT and European Registered Toxicologist. As a member of the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Water Quality and Health (WQTAG), he is involved in updating the Guidelines for Drinking-Water Quality. He is also a member of the Working Group Toxicology of PFAS of the German Drinking Water Commission.

Thomas Gude is Managing Director of Thomas Gude GmbH, which specialises in consulting in the areas of food contact materials, food and non-food. After about 30 years with authorities, the pharmaceutical and chemical industries and a long time as the operational manager of a Swiss laboratory, he now deals with risk assessments, especially in the food contact and consumer goods sector. In addition, he teaches at various universities and technical colleges, in particular at ETH Zurich.

Ron Hoogenboom is the Assistant Programme Leader Food Contaminants at Wageningen Food Safety Research, dealing with environmental contaminants, pesticides and toxins from moulds, algae and plants. Since 2012 he has been a member of the EFSA CONTAM Panel and was the vice-chair of the WG on PFAS.

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.

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’’.

Veerle Vanheusden is a Policy Officer in DG SANTE of the European Commission. She joined the European Commission in 2013, where she worked for four years in the Unit “Pesticides and Biocides”. In 2017 she moved to the Unit dealing with food processing technologies and novel foods, where her main area of activity is the EU policy and legislation on contaminants. She has previously worked in the private pharmaceutical sector.