Scientific Committee

Since 2010 he is Head of the Genetics and Immunobiochemistry Laboratory, in which DNA analysis, proteomics and mass spectrometry are carried out. He set up in his laboratory DNA analysis for species identification for routine official controls. He actually was involved in the European coordinated monitoring plans for horse meat and frauds in seafood. He has knowledge about laws and regulations regarding food frauds and he has contacts with the Ministry of Health, with which is part of a national project on frauds in seafood. He has collaborations and contacts with other European and Italian groups dealing with food authenticity. He is responsible, or involved as partner, of Italian research projects on food authenticity. He promoted initiatives for information of consumers and for education of veterinarian officers, e.g. conferences, brochures. He also has contacts with some food producers with which he collaborates in research projects.

Currently Professor of Food Chemistry at Dipartimento di Scienze del Farmaco, Università del Piemonte Orientale (Novara, Italy); Marco Arlorio is Chair of the Food Chemistry Inter-Divisional Group of Italian Chemical Society (GICA-SCI, Rome, Italy); Chair of the Food Chemistry Division, EuCheMS (Bruxelles, Belgium). Principal Investigator of many national and international Projects, active on teaching at Academic level as well as involved in Continue Medical Education in food sciences and nutrition.

Main research interests are focused on food quality and food safety assessment, particularly regarding the developing of new analytical methods and new strategic approaches dedicated to the food profiling and characterization. Principal fields of interests: food authenticity and analytical traceability; detection/tracking of hidden ingredients in food (mainly allergens); bioactive compounds in food/food ingredients (particularly antioxidant polyphenols); ingredient design (particularly regarding the valorisation of by-products and food wastes); stability of food ingredients and shelf life; thermal impact and neo-formed compounds in foods.

A scientist working at science-policy interface, he has over 30 years experience of applied research in the area of food safety and quality. As well as leading numerous national activities, Paul has co-ordinated two of the world’s largest research projects in the area of food authenticity and traceability: the €20M TRACE project (Tracing the origin of food) and currently FOODINTEGRITY.

He has published over 70 peer reviewed papers on food safety and quality and recently edited the book “New analytical approaches for verifying the origin of food” (Woodhead/Elsevier). He and has close links with the food industry, UK Public sector, academia and the European Commission.

The main areas of research of Federica Camin, PhD, concern the application of stable isotope ratio analysis of bio-elements to food, aimed at characterising geographical origin and controlling and protecting quality and authenticity.
She has been and is involved in several projects funded by European agencies (currently the FOOD INTEGRITY FP7 and the MASSTWIN H2020) and by national, regional and private agencies.
She is the scientific coordinator of the Stable Isotope Italian Group (http://www.spettrometriadimassa.it/Gritis) and participates as national expert to several technical commissions (European Commission, International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), International Olive Oil Council (COI), Joint Research Centre (JRC)).
Recently she has been appointed as Overseas Guest Professor by China National Research Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries (Beijing) and as Distinguished Professor and International Supervisor by the Institute of Food Sciences and Technology Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (Beijing).
She is the author of over 100 scientific papers (104 in SCOPUS and WEB OF SCIENCE) and over 150 communications at national and international conferences.

Dr James Donarski is the head of food authenticity at Fera Science Ltd. He has a background in analytical chemistry, authenticity determination, non-targeted analysis and small molecule structure elucidation. James oversees the science of the authenticity and profiling team, which comprises experts in the fields of stable isotope analysis; high resolution mass spectrometry; high field nuclear magnetic resonance; and proteomics.

Currently, his primary research interests include: the use of analytical databases for prevention of food fraud; the development of new and emerging technologies towards identification of food fraud; and the identification of biomarkers and where applicable, the subsequent development of rapid and/or portable tools for their detection.

He serves as Pro Vice Chancellor for the university and is responsible for the Medical and Life Sciences Faculty. He has published more than 350 peer review articles, many of them relating to the detection and control of agriculture, food and environmental related contaminants.

His main research interests are in the development of innovative techniques to provide early warning of toxin threats across complex food supply systems. Protecting the integrity of the food supply chain from fraud is also a key research topic and Chris led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal. Over the years Chris has developed a high level network of collaborators across Europe, the United States and Asia. He is a visiting Professor at the China Agriculture University in Beijing and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a recipient of a Winston Churchill Fellowship and is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Royal Society of Biology and the Institute of Food Science and Technology.

Previously Lynn Frewer was Professor of Food Safety and Consumer Behaviour at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and Head of Consumer Science at the Institute of Food research at Norwich in the UK.

Research interests focus on understanding and measuring societal and individual responses to risks and benefits associated with food, health, sustainability and safety, methodological innovation regarding the application of systematic reviews in the social science, and agrifood governance and associated policy issues, including policy translation of scientific results and foresight. Lynn has had extensive involvement in EU and nationally funded projects, primarily in the area of social science and the (agri) food sector.

She has published over 220 refereed journal articles and edited 5 books. She has also been involved in national and European research funding and strategy committees.

Diego graduated in Pharmacy at the University of Sevilla (Spain), obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2006. He has been affiliated to Instituto de la Grasa, Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), since 2000, and he did his postdoctoral training at McGill University (Montreal, Canada). He has participated in several national and European funded projects.

His research interests are centered on chemical characterization and sensory quality of fat foods such as virgin olive oil and dry cured hams, covering aspects as authentication, traceability, and the identification of chemical compounds responsible for sensory attributes. He is staff member of the Division of Olive Oil of the European Federation of Lipid and he is a national representative member in the Chemist working group of International Olive Oil Council.

Prof. Dr. Ana Garrido Varo. PhD in Agriculture Engineering. She has over 25 years of expertise in R & D & Education activities in the use of NIRS for quality/safety and traceability in a whole-food chain approach. Most of her activities have been aimed at the implementation of NIRS in the Iberian pig, compound feed, rendering industries and official inspection laboratories. She has participated as WP coordinator in different NIRS R & D projects supported by the EU. She was the convenor of the International Conference NIR-2003 held in Cordoba and since that time, she became member of the ICNIRS (The International Council for Near Infrared Spectroscopy) Chairman’s Advisory Committee (CAC). She was honored with the Tomas Hirschfeld award 2005 and she is the Chair of the ICNIRS for the period 2013-2017. She has been the author/co-author of more than 200 journal papers, book chapters, conference and refereed workshop papers and she has supervised more than 30 MSc and PhD theses related to NIRS, NIRS-microscopy and NIRS-imaging.

Ian gained a degree in Natural Sciences at Cambridge, and followed this with a PhD in Chemistry at the University of East Anglia. His PhD looked at how the analytical profiles of carbohydrates could be used in food authentication, particularly that of orange juice, and was based at the MAFF Food Science Laboratory. From non-alcoholic beverage research, Ian progressed to spirit drinks, with a move to the Scotch Whisky Research Institute (SWRI) in 1996. The Institute is sponsored by most of the major whisky distilling companies in Scotland and carries out non-competitive research on behalf of its members. Ian was initially involved in distillation research, studying the effect of whisky still design on the flavour of the final spirit. However, with the development of the information provision that the SWRI offers its members, he became involved in developing its technical Infoline and communication resources. Ian is now the Senior Scientist at the Institute responsible for Product Protection research, which includes spirit drink authentication.

Prof Jana Hajslova is the Head of Accredited (ISO17025) Food Quality and Safety Laboratory of the Department of Food Analysis and Nutrition at the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (UCT Prague). She is a widely recognized expert in the field of food/environmental chemistry and analysis, having published more than 300 original papers on the development of advanced analytical strategies of contaminants, residues, natural toxins and other biologically active compounds, authentication and metabolomics. In 2016 she received the Wiley Award (AOAC Int.). Her research team has participated in many international and national projects at both research, management and coordination levels, including the EC 5-7th Framework Programme, H2020, COSTs and EEA grants. Jana’s team has been also involved in various bilateral international research activities. Under her supervision, close collaboration has taken place with many world-renowned institutions, such as WHO, FAO, USDA and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Currently, she is the Czech Republic delegate in HORIZON 2020 SOCIETAL CHALLENGE 2: ‘Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Marine and Maritime and Inland Water Research and the Bioeconomy’ committee. In her capacity as Chairwoman, she had a key input into establishing a series of reputable international symposia, the ‘Recent Advances in Food Analysis’ series, from 2003-2017 (www.rafa2017.eu).

Gerald A. Herrmann has pioneered the organic sector. He is a world-wide renowned specialist and organic industry expert and speaker. After gaining his university degree in agriculture in 1985, he spent almost two decades shaping Naturland, a private organic certifying and farmers association, as an organic farm consultant, as its President and finally as its Executive Director. At the same time, he served voluntarily in different capacities at the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (“IFOAM”) for close to 20 years, including as its Vice President (1989-2005) and President (2005-2008). During his time at IFOAM, he worked to develop IFOAM’s Accreditation Program as well as to help IFOAM craft and succeed in its mission.

He founded Organic Services together with 3 other organic experts in 2004 to consult leading organisations in organic food, sustainability and development matters. Organic Services has an interdisciplinary focus with strong expertise in market development and studies, supply chains, certification and accreditation consulting, biogas plant implementation, and knowledge transfer through the organization of trade fairs, conferences and study tours, among other areas.

As experts in software-based audit and quality management systems, Organic Services has developed new solutions for the market with its trusted partners. This includes “Check Organic”, for enhanced supply chain integrity, and »Group Integrity«, for the administration of (internal) control systems for smallholder groups, companies with contract production as well as local certifiers. Organic Services is taking this expertise to other food and beverage sectors to develop solutions for these sectors as well. Organic Services is uniquely positioned to serve actors throughout the supply chain and has lent its expertise in software-based audit and quality management systems to a wide variety of projects at national and international levels.

With near to 40 years of experience in Microbiology, Genetics, Molecular Biology fields and more than 50 publications and papers, Rolando Lorenzetti has a strong and consolidated experience in industrial R&D project management.

Nationally (UNI, Farmindustria Scientific Committee on the risks arising from the use of biological agents, the Ministry of Health) and internationally (CEN, the European Community Commission DG XI, ESNBA, EFPIA, ICH), recognized expert in the biotechnology field, biological safety and quality of pharmaceutical products. He was hold expert by Italian Health Ministry to the Commission of European Communities (DGXI) as a member of the “Risk Assessment Group (Dir. 90/219)”, national expert in WG1 Of the Biotechnology Committee of CER (European Standardization Committee), and member of the Working Group II (GILSP) of the OECD on safety in biotechnology.

He was scientific coordinator in over 20 strategic projects of big pharma companies (Sanofi- Aventis, Bioker, Vicuron Pharmaceuticals) and appointed expert from the Ministry of Education, University and Research for the evaluation of industrial R&D projects. He has coordinated the exploitation of research results, focusing on the scientific-academic and industrial IPR, patent protection and the feasibility study in pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.

He was appointed as Research and Innovation Director of Milan Municipality from 2006 to 2011. He was also responsible of strategic research planning of Milan and moreover he was involved in the strategy for public engagement and private-public collaboration during the Milan Expo 2015 campaign.

Niels Lucas Luijckx is a biologist/toxicologist that has worked for over 25 years in the domain of risk analysis and food safety. He has covered professionally risk assessment, risk management and risk communication. Since 2004 he has been working at TNO as a senior consultant and researcher in risk management food safety with current focus on emerging risk identification including food fraud, risk ranking and allergen cross contamination.
Past positions include the RIVM, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Schuttelaar & partners.

Degree in Biology and a PhD in Genetics. Elena Maestri is associated to the Interdepartmental Center SITEIA.PARMA for research activities concerning food quality, safety and authenticity. She is the current President of the Degree in Biotechnology and member of the PhD Course in Biotechnology and Life Sciences. Her teaching activities cover Cell and Animal Biology, Environmental Biology, Applications of Transgenic Organisms.

The research activities are focused on food integrity since 2000, in the framework of EC funded projects OLIV-TRACK, PETER, CHILL-ON and FOODINTEGRITY, and in several National research projects, with the application of molecular biology and genomics to protection of quality and authenticity. Other important research activities are in the field of environmental biotechnologies, phytoremediation, effects of pollutants, renewable energies. She authored over 250 publications.

Vahid Mojtahed has broad interests in interdisciplinary research concerning socio-economic, climate change, and environmental studies and modelling. He has previously worked on economic appraisal, resilience assessment, decision support systems, and risk and uncertainty modeling and assessment in national and FP7 European projects. He is an elected Fellow of the Society of Decision Making Under Deep Uncertainty since 2016.

Vahid has a M.A in Economics of International Trade (Erasmus-Mundus Program), and a Ph.D in Economics at the Ca’Foscari University of Venice where he studied models of firms’ competition with boundedly rational consumers.

Jean-François Morin is in charge of Collaborative Research at the Nantes Food Laboratory of the Eurofins Group. Today his work involves the development of new analytical techniques for the detection of food fraud. In the Food Integrity project, he is leading the group whose role will be to develop a “Knowledge Base” bringing together available information on suitable analytical tools and associated reference data for the detection of food fraud.

M.Sc. in software engineering, applied mathematics and operational research from University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 1986. Senior scientist at NOFIMA Market since 1993, working with applications of ICT especially related to traceability, production management, simulation, sustainability and decision support systems. Serves as an adviser to the EU, to several EU-funded projects, to the Nordic Council of Ministers and to the Nordic Industrial Fund on these subjects. Co-ordinator of the EU 5FP TraceFish project, the EU 7FP WhiteFish project, and several Nordic and national projects. WP leader in numerous other national and international projects including EU 6FP Seafood Plus, EU 6FP TRACE, EU 7FP EcoFishMan and EU 7FP FoodIntegrity. Author or co-author of 3 European standards (CWAs), 2 ISO standards (ISO 12875 and 12877) and more than 15 peer-refereed scientific publications.

PhD in Agriculture Engineering (University of Córdoba-UCO, Spain). Since 1999, Prof. Dr. Dolores Peréz-Marín serves as instructor and teacher in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Engineering (ETSIAM, UCO). Currently, she holds the position of Full-Professor in Fundamentals and Technology of Livestock Production and in Non-destructive Spectral Sensors for Quality, Safety and Traceability of Agro-Food Products.

She is Director of the Master Engineering and Management in the food chain and vice-dean in her Faculty. Her NIRS researches began in 1999 at UCO, working later on in the topic of her thesis, concerned the application of nonlinear calibration methodology to the difficult problem of measuring the ingredient composition of unground compound animal feeds. The thesis was awarded and generated a number of publications in top rank journals. Since then, she has worked on an ever widening range of applications in food and agriculture − feed, fats and oils, meats, protein animal by-products, milk and dairy, and various fruits and vegetables − using NIRS, alone or combined with other sensors. This research has resulted in well over 190 publications, with 78 of these being peer reviewed papers in top quality journals and several contributions as invited speakers in national and international conferences and workshops.

She has experience in the participation, management and scientific co-ordination of several national and European R + D NIRS projects, and in technology transfer contracts with Spanish feed and food industries.

She is member of the Council Management Committee (2013-2017) and of the Educational Group of ICNIRS, highlighting her participation in the educational project “International Virtual Platform for Learning and Teaching of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (IVPTL-NIRS)”. She was awarded in 2014 with the International Tomas Hirschfeld Award for her contribution in the field of NIR spectroscopy.

Analytical Chemistry Degree, Summa Cum Laude (University of Ferrara,1997); National Prize for Young Researchers (Italian Chemistry Federation, 1998); Master in Science-Technology & Management working also at the Natta Research Center (Shell-Montell Polyolefins, Ferrara, Italy); PhD in Materials Science (University of Parma, 2005).

He is Vice-Chair of the ILSI Process Related Compounds & Natural Toxins Task Force and member of: Board of the European Technology Platform (Italian Section) “Food for Life”; Board of the Italian Chemistry Society – Mass Spectrometry Division,; Working Groups within European Committee for Standardization (CEN); Editorial Advisory Boards of Food Additives and Contaminants Journal and World Mycotoxin Journal, Scientific Committees of International Events (e.g. World Mycotoxin Forum (WMF), Rapid Methods Europe (RME), Recent Advances in Food Analysis (RAFA). His scientific production is documented by 5 book chapters, 115 contributions at national and international conferences and 70 papers in international ISI journals.

Since 2006 he is the head of Food Chemistry & Safety Research Department within the Food Research Labs of Barilla SpA (Parma, Italy) working on research projects about food safety-quality-authenticity, food contact materials, sensors, mass spectrometry.

Saskia heads the Food Authenticity research at RIKILT Wageningen UR in the Netherlands since 2012, which doubles with her position as professor Food Authenticity and Integrity at the Wageningen University.

She received her PhD in Food Chemistry from the Wageningen University in 1995 and subsequently carried out research on lipid and volatiles chemistry as post-doctoral researcher for Unilever. From 1998 till 2005 she joined the Nutritional Sciences Department of University College Cork in Ireland, after which she moved to RIKILT Wageningen UR.

Her present research interests concern complex authentication issues with regard to composition, production systems (organic, sustainable, halal), geographical origin, processing, and typicality with application of state-of-the-art analytical methodology in combination with chemometrics. Furthermore, she is involved in research on factors determining food fraud vulnerability. She has published 180+ scientific papers, and participated in numerous national, EU and global projects/committees/networks.

Monika Tomaniova has over 20 years experience in the development and validation of analytical methods mostly for organic contaminants in food and environmental matrices, food authentication and data interpretation. Beside this, she is highly experienced and well-qualified in project management / administration and knowledge transfer, communication and dissemination activities; she was WP (co-)leader for making an impact & training & dissemination activities of several EU FP6 (TRACE), FP7 (NanoLyse, QSAFFE, FoodIntegrity) and H2020 (MultiCoop, AuthentNet, EU-China-Safe) projects. She also chairs the organizing committee of a series of reputable international symposia ‘Recent Advances in Food Analysis’ in 2007-2017. Until now she has also either chaired the organizing committee or co-organized dozens of international conferences and workshops and many training events.

Prof. Dr. Wunderlin obtained his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1987 at the National University of Córdoba (Argentina). Afterwards, he completed his post-doctoral work at the University of Dortmund (Germany) with a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

He is currently full professor at the National University of Córdoba (Argentina) and principal researcher from the National Research Council (Argentina). He is in charge of graduate and postgraduate courses of food chemistry and Food Technology. He supervised thirteen PhD, six Masters in Science, twelve post-doctoral works, and ten research assistants. Grants from several research agencies (national and international). He has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and over 200 presentations in scientific meetings.

He is associated editor for Science of the Total Environment.