Food Safety and Dietary Risk Assessment

Sina-Elisabeth Ben Ali studied nutritional sciences at the University of Vienna. Since 2018, she has been working in the field of pesticide residues at AGES. She is involved in the assessment of plant protection products and active substances, as well as in the evaluation of MRL applications. Additionally, she has been participating in the Standing Committee on Pesticide Residues since 2021.

Paul Brian has been a residues specialist assessor in the UK Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) since 2016. He has a particular focus on MRLs including GB MRL and import tolerance applications, MRL reviews and the adoption of Codex MRLs.

Monika Bross is analytical chemist by training; she has been working at BASF Agricultural Center in Limburgerhof for more than 30 years. Within BASF she has been involved in the conduct of residue and metabolism studies, but also in dietary exposure assessments and the preparation of dossiers for international submissions. She is member of association expert teams dealing with residue related topics (including MRL setting) and the implementation of the EU Transparency Regulation.

Isabelle Christian is a Dietary Safety and Metabolism Expert at Bayer. She holds a PhD in organic synthesis and joined Bayer Crop Science in 2002 as a research chemist. In 2008, she moved to development/consumer risk assessment. She is a member of the CLE RESG and chairs the EUPAF dietary safety subgroup.

Karsten Hohgardt is the Head of the unit responsible for risk management in the field of toxicology, application security, methods of analysis, and residue behaviour at BVL. His main experience lies in MRL setting and residue behaviour.

Marc Kennedy joined the Central Science Laboratory (now Fera Science Ltd) in 2006 and has worked primarily on probabilistic models for pesticide intakes from dietary and occupational routes. He has a PhD in statistics and has worked at the universities of Nottingham and Sheffield and the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. Marc has also contributed to risk modelling software BREAM, BREAM2, and BROWSE for bystanders, residents, operators, and workers exposure and developed aggregate exposure models in the EU ACROPOLIS and EUROMIX projects.

Carsten Kneuer is a Toxicologist and the Head of the Unit “Toxicology of Active Substances and their Metabolites“ in the Pesticides Safety Department of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment. His group is evaluating the mammalian toxicology of pesticides within the EU assessment framework and is actively involved in various projects aimed at the advancement of our risk assessment practice.

Britta Michalski is a Chemist by training and has been working in the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) since 2004. She is Head of the Unit Residues and Analytical Methods in the Department Pesticides Safety. Her group is involved in MRL setting, approval and authorisation procedures for pesticides and biocides. Britta is member of OECD’s Residue Chemistry Expert Group since more than 15 years and has recently co-chaired the Writing Group on the update of the Test Guideline on Storage Stability. She has been leading several EFSA projects in the area of pesticide residues and processing factors.

Alexandra Mienné studied chemistry and health risk assessment and has been working at ANSES in the Regulated Products Assessment Department since 2012. She is involved in residue assessment since then, drafting registration reports, evaluation reports and European monographs. She has been involved in cumulative risk assessment of pesticides since 2015 and participates in the European working group on cumulative risk assessment. 

Silvia I. Nicolau Solano is a Veterinarian specialised in food safety, holding a PhD in molecular genetics and biochemistry, along with two Masters of Science in biotechnology and meat science. Her professional career in the EU institutions spans over 14 years, where she has been dedicated to leverage the impact of science in policymaking. This includes food safety risk assessment as Scientific Officer at EFSA and research for health and food system policies as Policy Analyst at the JRC and as Scientific Officer at the European Research Council Executive Agency. Currently, she is involved in developing evidence-based policies in the area of residues of plant protection products as a Policy Officer at the Directorate of Health and Food Safety of the European Commission. Before joining the EU institutions, she worked at national level, leading the development of a knowledge transfer programme between academia and the food sector and implementing national official controls at primary production ensuring compliance with food safety standards.

Juan Parra Morte has been Toxicologist in the Pesticide Peer Review Unit of EFSA since 2008. He has been actively involved in the assessment of pesticide active substances, their metabolites and impurities, including the EFSA PPR, the OECD Guidance on Residue Definition and EFSA's outsourced projects on the Genotoxicity Database and QSAR and Read-Across for the genotoxicity of metabolites. He is chairing the EFSA Working Group on NAMs QSARs.

Hermine Reich has been working at EFSA since 2006. As Lead Senior Scientific Officer in the Unit on Pesticide Residues she is responsible for developing and coordinating cross-cutting scientific topics related to EFSA’s risk assessment activities under Regulation (EC) No 396/2005, in particular in the field of dietary risk assessment, assessment of MRL applications, and development of risk assessment methodologies.

Claire L. Stephenson is a Senior Global Expert in residues and dietary exposure at ADAMA. Prior to this, she has worked both in consultancy and for the UK regulatory authority where she was the technical lead for MRLs. She has represented the UK as a technical expert at a range of EC and EFSA meetings and holds a PhD in biochemistry.

Petra Veit is a Biologist by training and Head of Consumer Safety Residues within BASF. She is responsible for the field and the analytical part of all kind of residue studies for MRL settings.