Pesticide Residues in Food

Michelangelo Anastassiades gained his PhD in pesticide residue analysis. From 2000 to 2002 he worked as a visiting scientist at the USDA. Since 2006 he has been Head of the EU Reference Laboratory for Pesticides using Single Residue Methods.

Jan Baele is the RASFF team leader and part of the European Commission DG SANTE Unit responsible for coordinating and managing the RASFF, AAC and FFN networks across EU countries. In 2022, he and the RASFF teams across the EU dealt with more than 4,000 alerts and notifications.

Almut Bitterhof is a Food Chemist and has been working at the European Commission (DG SANTE) since 1999. During her career, she has worked in the areas of inspection and controls, relations with agencies and on policy development for contaminants and pesticide residues. Currently, she is Deputy Head of the Unit “pesticides and biocides” in DG SANTE and leads the pesticide residues sector.

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.

Nadja Buchner is a Scientific Officer at the National Reference Laboratory for Pesticide Residues at the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) in Berlin.

Luis Carrasco Cabrera has been working as a Scientific Officer in the Pesticides Residues Unit of the European Food Safety Authority since 2017, contributing to the review of maximum residue levels (MRLs) of pesticides, the EU annual monitoring reports on pesticides residues in food, cumulative risk assessment methodologies and other activities related to improving risk assessment tools and communication/training to Member States and third countries.

Víctor Cutillas Juárez is a Researcher at the European Union Reference Laboratory for Pesticide Residues in Fruits and Vegetables (EURL-FV) at the University of Almería. His research focuses on the application of chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry for the analysis of pesticides in fruit and vegetables.

Amadeo Rodríguez Fernández-Alba is Head of the EU Reference Laboratory for Fruits and Vegetables at the University of Almería. He is an expert in method development by mass spectrometric techniques and in proficiency tests development on pesticide residues.

Friederike Habedank is the Head of the department for the analysis of pesticide residues and organic contaminants at the State Office for Agriculture, Food Safety and Fisheries in Mecklenburg‑Western Pomerania. She is an active member of national working groups in the field of residue analysis, e.g. heads the working group for harmonisation of official German methods for plant toxins.

Caroline Harris is a Principal Scientist in Exponent International’s UK office and in the past she was also the Centre Director for Chemical Regulation and Food Safety. After many years as a Regulator at CRD, she continues to be involved with MRLs, import tolerances and pesticide residues in international trade. She also remains highly active in the field of consumer risk assessment.

Jochen Heidler studied biochemistry and holds a PhD in Environmental Health Sciences. He joined the BfR in 2008 and has been working as a Scientific Officer in the Department of Pesticide Safety since 2012. His main task is the evaluation of analytical studies in the context of pesticide approval and authorisation procedures. He is also a member of the National Expert Group for Pesticide Residue Analytical Methods (EPRA) and the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR).

Helen Kyle is working as a Programme Manager at HSE, Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) in UK. She is responsible for the operational team that delivers the national testing programme for Great Britain and Northern Ireland with advice from the Expert Committee on Pesticide Residues in Food (PRiF). She works with official laboratories in UK and Europe and government regulatory officials at CRD.

Marine Lambert is an Engineer in analytical chemistry and a project manager at the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses). With more than 10 years of experience in pesticide residue analysis, she is in charge of the French National Reference Laboratory for Single Residue Methods.

Hans Mol is a Senior Scientist at Wageningen Food Safety Research. Focus of his research is on pesticide residues in food and feed, environment, and on human biomonitoring. Key techniques are chromatography with advanced mass spectrometric detection applied for both target analysis and suspect screening/non-target analysis. He is heading the NRL for pesticides in food and feed.

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.

Siret Surva is a Policy Officer in the European Commission since 2019. Before joining the European Commission, she worked for the Estonian Ministry of Rural affairs on topics related to food safety such as food additives, food flavorings, food for special nutritional purposes etc. and gave her expertise as a seconded national expert in the European Commission on novel food. She also contributed to the success of the Estonian Presidency of the Council of the European Union as a food safety Counsellor of Agricultural Affairs in the Permanent Representation of Estonia to the EU.

Nell Townsend is a pesticide residues and dietary exposure specialist with broad experience evaluating studies and conducting consumer risk assessments for registration of crop protection chemicals. Her expertise includes evaluating residue and metabolism data packages, conducting data gap analyses and preparing EU regulatory dossiers. Her experience also includes the assessment of physical, chemical and technical properties of pesticides and biocides (including product families) and the evaluation of methods of analysis. She provides expert scientific support to clients on the practical, technical, and regulatory aspects of pesticide and biocide dossiers to support active substance approvals or product authorisations.

Vandana Tripathy is an Agricultural Chemist and is working as Network Coordinator for the All India Network Project on Pesticide Residues (AINP-PR), ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and Scheme In-charge of Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at National Level (MPRNL). Previously she worked as Principal Scientist at AINP-PR and as Senior Scientist at ICAR- Directorate of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research (DMAPR), Anand, Gujarat. Vandana has over 20 years of experience in the field of pesticide residues and food safety and development of new analytical methods of detection of pesticide residues in food commodities. She is Chair/Co-Chair/Member of various electronic Working Groups (eWG) Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR).