Food Allergens

Katharina Blümchen is working in the Department of Pediatrics in the Division of Pneumology, Allergology, Infectious Diseases and Gastroenterology at the Universitymedicine Frankfurt, Germany.

Ylva Sjögren Bolin is an Immunologist and a Nutritionist and has been at the Science Department at the Swedish Food Agency in Sweden since 2009. She has worked with analysis of food allergens and risk assessment but now she mainly works with risk management and risk communication.

Neil Buck has spent more than 20 years within industry, and is the Corporate Toxicologist for General Mills, Inc where he provides regulatory toxicology support to the global organisation. His time is split between innovation, technical regulatory affairs, and product safety. He is active in various stakeholder fora in both the US and EU on topics relevant to continuously improving consumer protection, including Food Drink Europe, the US Consumer Goods Association, ILSI Europe and the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences.

Philippe Delahaut is a Veterinarian and joined CER Groupe from 1977-2015 as the Head of the Health Department. Since 2021 he has been the Vice-Chair of the Scientific Committee at the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC), Belgium.

Mindy Dulai is a chemist and joined the Food Standards Agency as Head of Risk Assessment in 2023. Prior to this she led the scientific advisory function at the Office for Product Safety and Standards; the UK’s regulator for consumer products. The earlier part of her career was spent working for the Royal Society of Chemistry on a range of roles, including in relation to UK chemicals policy. She has worked on the development and communication of risk assessment across different products sectors both inside and outside of government.

Jan Eliëns is a Senior Inspector Expertise Industry at the NVWA, the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority. He has worked at the NVWA for over 33 years. Jan specialises in the supervision of allergens, labelling and the use of food improvements agents (additives, flavorings and enzymes).

Simon Flanagan is a Research Fellow & Global Lead for Food Allergy & Food Allergens at Mondelēz Europe. After 17 years with RSSL's Food Safety Division he joined Mondele͂z Europe in 2019 and is part of the Global Food Safety team. He is an internationally acclaimed Technical Consultant specialising in the field of food allergens. Simon is biochemist by training who has worked in numerous of sectors of the food industry before joining RSSL in 2002. Simon is affiliated with numerous professional bodies, industry groups and technical committees (ILSI Europe, FDF, BRC, EFSA, FSA) and has published several articles in peer reviewed journals and a reference book including the Handbook of Food Allergen Detection and Control.

Maxime Gavage is a Chemical Engineer and joined CER Groupe in 2015 where he undertook his PhD research project in collaboration with the University of Namur. He’s now an R&D Project Manager with a particular focus on the protein world, especially through mass spectrometry-based proteomics, immunoassay development, and protein functionalization via conjugation.

Jasmine Lacis-Lee is a specialist in food safety management and risk mitigation within the Australian food manufacturing industry. Jasmine has a Bachelor of Science, with more than 25 years’ experience working in the food & beverage industries. She is the Chair and President of the Allergen Bureau and appointed Board Director since 2018. Jasmine joined BVAQ in 2015 and in her role regularly consults both nationally and internationally with a variety of organisations to improve, manage or mitigate risks. In 2019 she was instrumental in the establishment of the Australian region of EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering Design Group). Jasmine holds committee positions on the AIFST Scientific and Advisory committee, NATA Life Sciences Accreditation Advisory Committee and is the only Australian representative on the AOAC Food Allergen Working Group.

Linda Monaci is research director and is leader of the Mass Spectrometry/Proteomics Unit at CNR-ISPA in Bari (Italy), with 25 years’ experience in the field of safety and quality of food products. Her focus spanning from food contaminants including food allergens, food authenticity, mycotoxins, and more recently her research activity is also addressed to the nutrition and functional foods. She is co-author of 120 sicnetific peer-reviewed papers, has led several national and international projects in the field food safety and quality and is currently member of several scientific comittees and advisory boards in the field of food safety, food allergen analysis and food allergy.

Patrick O‘Mahony is the Chief Specialist in Food Science & Technology at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. His regulatory responsibilities include coordinating the implementation of food allergen labelling/declaration in Ireland in accordance with EU and Irish legislation. He is a member of the FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on risk assessment of food allergens and was responsible for formulating the request from Ireland that resulted in the 2014 EFSA Opinion on an evaluation of the existing food allergens for labelling purposes.

Liljia Polo-Richards is the Founder and Director of Allergy Companions Limited, a review platform established in 2021 to support individuals with food allergies and dietary restrictions. Inspired to create this resource after an upsetting dining experience with her son, who has a severe nut allergy, Liljia has made it her mission to enhance safety and inclusivity in the hospitality industry. Today, Liljia collaborates with hospitality businesses, offering consulting services aimed at improving their service to allergic customers and ensuring compliance with safety standards.

Bert Pöpping is the Managing Director of the strategic food consulting company FOCOS in Germany and Co-Founder and Senior Scientific Expert of the regulatory and compliance company Food Orbit in Portugal. He has more than 25 years of experience in food safety and strategic advice for companies in the food supply chain. He is one of the experts on the joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Food Allergens. Bert has published more than 75 publications on food allergens, food fraud, food safety and food regulations. He also serves as an expert on the US Pharmacopeia Food Chemical Codex group dealing with food ingredients.

Paul J. Turner is a Reader/Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant at Imperial College London, and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. His research, funded by the Medical Research Council, European Commission and UK Food Standards Agency among others, focusses on the pathophysiology of severe allergic reactions to food. He was a member of the UK Food Standards Agency's Science Council, the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization Codex Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Food Allergens, and leads the EAACI Taskforce on Food Allergen Thresholds.

Kitty Verhoeckx is an Analytical Chemist and an Assistant Professor at the Dermatology and Allergology Department of the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) in the Netherlands. In 1991 she started her career at TNO, where she had various research positions and was involved in various research topics, systems biology, bioactive lipids, etc. In 2005 she gained her PhD degree at the University of Leiden. Since 2011, Kitty Verhoeckx is involved in food allergy projects. She was a management committee member of the COST Action INFOGEST, participated in the ILSI Europe task force ‘Allergenicity and processing’, ILSI Europe FA Expert Group “Allergenicity’’, the EFSA Focus group on allergenicity assessment, and EFSA focus groups on food allergy and digestion. She was the Chair of the COST Action ImpARAS. Currently, she is management committee member of COMFA and she coordinates the Dutch project MoSIN.

Hans-Ulrich Waiblinger is Head of Department at the State Institute for Chemical and Veterinary Analysis of Food (CVUA) Freiburg in Germany and works in the official food control. His fields of work include the control of genetic modifications and allergens as well as molecular-biological species differentiation.

Kang Zhou is a Food Safety Officer at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is one of the secretariats for Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) and ad hoc expert meetings to provide risk assessment and scientific advice to Codex Alimentarius, to support the development of international guidelines and standards, and also transfer the technology to member countries for capacity development.