21st Annual Global Food Safety Summit

Zoltan has over 25 years of international experience in the food and consumer goods industry, holding senior leadership roles across Quality, Food Safety, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, and Operations. As Senior Vice President Quality & Food Safety at Danone, he leads the global QFS strategy with a strong focus on both performing today and transforming for tomorrow. His priorities include driving quality excellence, strengthening food safety and compliance, accelerating digital transformation, and building the capabilities required to create a world-leading QFS organization.

Roberto has 30 years experience in Food business, spent mainly in managerial roles across R&D and in Q&FS, from Innovation to Research, from Product Development to Industrialization.

Roberto holds currently two roles, being Vice President Global Quality & Food Safey and RD&Q Strategy & Portfolio Management at Barilla group

Raquel Medeiros is Global Head of Food Safety – Chemical Contaminants and Packaging at Nestlé. She brings more than 20 years of experience across R&D and Operations, working across multiple countries and product categories. With a background in Biotechnology Engineering and a PhD in Chemistry, she currently leads global strategies for chemical contaminant and packaging risk management, with a strong focus on science- and risk-based approaches to food safety.

Anton Hutten is Director Quality & Food Safety Global Specialties. He began his career with Unilever in 1990 in the laboratory, leading quality control and analytical development at a specialty refinery. With more than 30 years of industry experience, including over 20 years in Quality & Food Safety leadership in the oils and fats sector, Anton connects quality and food safety requirements across the entire value chain, from source to customer. His expertise covers technical, food specialties, and infant nutrition applications, with a strong focus on customer trust, compliance, innovation, and operational excellence.

Frans Verstraete graduated in 1985 as agricultural engineer at the University of Ghent (Belgium). After his studies he held positions at the University of Ghent and thereafter at the Belgian Ministry of Agriculture and he was for a period technical adviser of the Belgian Minister of Agriculture. He is working for the European Commission since 1997. In the European Commission he has had various functions and since 2000 he is working at the Directorate General Health and Food Safety. He is responsible for the elaboration, development and management of the EU-legislation on contaminants in feed and food.

Andres Del Rio is a global regulatory affairs and health sciences leader with more than 18 years of experience in the food, nutrition, and FMCG industries. He currently serves as R&I Director and Global Lead of Regulatory Affairs & Health Science at Lipton Teas & Infusions. Previously, he held senior leadership roles at Danone, Marks & Spencer, and Unilever, with expertise spanning innovation compliance, nutrition science, product development, and global regulatory strategy. He is passionate about bridging science, regulation, and business innovation.

Leo Meunier, PhD, Eurotox Registered Toxicologist, is Chemical Safety Director at Danone, leading an international toxicology team within Danone Global Quality & Food Safety.
With over 20 years of experience, he drives global strategies covering the full scope of chemical food safety, from ingredients to packaging and contaminants.
He develops science-based risk assessment frameworks supporting innovation and regulatory compliance.
He is member of the French Toxicology Society and has previously been involved in international scientific and industry expert groups, including various ILSI Europe task forces, FoodDrinkEurope or Specialized Nutrition Europe.
He has co-authored over 10 scientific publications in the fields of toxicology, risk assessment of substances in food.

Ana Soares Pereira brings 20 years of FMCG experience in Quality, Sustainability, and R&D across both industry and retail. Currently serving as Head of Compliance & Operations for Quality & Sustainability at Lidl Portugal, she specializes in embedding sustainable practices and rigorous quality standards into global supply chains and the management of Lidl Portugal’s co-innovation centers. Passionate about innovation and value-chain transformation, Ana brings a comprehensive end-to-end perspective to navigating complex regulatory landscapes and evolving consumer expectations.

Maria Piedad Lopez Lenis is a global Quality, Food Safety, and Supply Chain leader with more than 26 years of international experience in the food and beverage industry. As Head of Global Supplier & 3PM Quality Excellence within the Taste, Texture & Health Business Unit at dsm-firmenich, she leads end-to-end quality transformation, supplier risk management, regulatory compliance, and strategic partnerships across complex global supply networks.

Having lived and worked across Europe and Latin America and bringing experience from both brand-owner and supplier environments, Maria offers a distinctive perspective on building resilient, sustainable, and consumer-centric quality systems. Passionate about strengthening food safety culture, accelerating digital transformation, and advancing sustainability, she is dedicated to developing high-performing teams that create business value while protecting consumers and brands.

Natalia Bryjak is Head of Product Quality & Food Safety at Żabka Polska, one of the leading convenience retail chains in Central and Eastern Europe. She is responsible for the quality development of private label products and oversees key food safety processes across the organization, including supplier qualification, complaint management, product withdrawal and recall procedures, and food safety governance. Natalia is also actively involved in building and strengthening food safety culture both within the company and throughout its supplier network, promoting best practices and a proactive approach to consumer protection.

Have worked in the dairy, biopharmaceutical, and beverage for >35 years. During a 22-year career at PepsiCo, have led numerous food safety & quality initiatives.
This includes researching and roll-out of new Policies, Standards and Systems. As an IRCA qualified auditor, I get the opportunity to audit the effectiveness and
field compliance to these initiatives – always with any eye to further simplify and continuous improvement. Current focus is on continuous improvements, manufacturing optimization and waste reduction, hence, the content of my speaking opportunity at this summit.

Petra Luber is a Head of Unit at the German food safety authority. Together with her team she is responsible for incident and crisis management in the area of food safety. They take care of the management and clarification of food-borne outbreaks and try to prevent future crisis events.

Petra has three decades of professional experience in the field of food microbiology and in the assessment and management of microbiological and chemical risks in foods. After working in a contract laboratory and as a consultant for food industry she became a risk and crisis manager at the Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety in 2006. She has published 20 papers in peer review journals.

Petra holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology and a Master’s degree in Biology.

Konrad Treter is the Global Senior Programme Manager for Food and Product Safety at Just Eat Takeaway.com, where he leads safety and regulatory programme across 15 countries. Backed by over a decade of operational experience, Konrad excels at integrating enterprise-wide Food Safety Management Systems with data-driven decision-support tools, ensuring cross-border auditability and regulatory alignment without sacrificing human oversight.

Simon is a Research Fellow and food allergen subject matter expert for Mondelez International based in the UK.

Simon is an internationally acclaimed specialist in the field of food allergens. He is a biochemist by training and gained experience of working in a variety of sectors within the food industry before joining RSSL in 2002. In his RSSL role Simon has worked with global blue-chip manufacturers, retailers and ingredient suppliers, as well as manufacturers of specialist dietary products to provide guidance on risk assessment, risk mitigation and management and analytical techniques for allergen detection in foods. Simon’s remit involved a broad scope of projects, from futureproofing corporate allergen policy through to independent expert site risk assessment and training programs and incident management.

Since 2005 Simon has been a key advisor to the Cadbury and more latterly Kraft / Mondelēz International (the parent company of RSSL - RSSL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mondelēz) business on allergen control and responsible for developing policy and training. In 2016 Simon became an extended member of the Food Safety Team and is currently the Global Lead for Food Allergens and Food Allergy advising the business on both proactive allergen strategy and reactive lead for allergen incidents.

Simon is affiliated with numerous professional bodies, industry groups and technical committees (ILSI Europe, FDF, BRC, EFSA, FSA, FARRP, GMA) and has published several articles in peer reviewed journals. He was also principal editor for the ‘Handbook of Food Allergen Detection and Control’. He was presented with a technical leadership award in 2014 for contributions to food safety and a SOFHT industry award for the development of RSSL’s practical allergen workshops. He was also awarded ‘Food and Drink Scientist of the Year’ at the FDF awards in 2018.

Simon was one of the first to develop a methodology for quantitative allergen risk assessment, which is becoming widely accepted as industry best practice. This methodology was adopted by Food and Drink Europe in their 2013 allergen management standard. This approach to risk assessment is the foundation of RSSL's allergen consultancy service and training courses.

Simon is a fully qualified HACCP practitioner and lead auditor. Experienced trainer who has developed a number of factory workshops and food safety training programmes for chemical and allergen hazards

Korinna is Quality Director for EMEA at Ingredion with 25 years of experience in the food industry. She is with Ingredion in the last 16 years and lead Quality strategy implementation, enabling people and organization to drive business relevant improvements in areas of Customer Experience, Food Safety, Regulatory Compliance and Supplier Quality Programs across the region.

Before joining Ingredion, Korinna worked with H.J. Heinz in different quality roles in plants in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

Korinna holds an MSc Food Safety & Quality Management from University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, UK and a Dipl. oec.troph. from University of Kiel, Germany.

Korinna lives near Hamburg with her family. In her free time she enjoys discovering new countries and cultures and loads of sport outside: cycling, field hockey and skiing.

Michelle works with leading food and beverage manufacturers across Europe to improve visibility, strengthen compliance processes and accelerate product innovation. With experience helping organisations connect supplier, product and regulatory data, she supports teams in responding to regulatory change, reducing risk and building more resilient ways of working across the supply chain

A highly experienced Technical Leader with over 20 years' experience in the food manufacturing industry, including high-risk production environments. Throughout their career, i have led technical and quality functions across multi-site operations, supplying major retail customers in both the UK and European markets.
Passionate about food safety and quality excellence, I have successfully driven food safety culture initiatives and developed strong expertise in customer standards, regulatory compliance, and continuous improvement.
Originally trained as a Biochemist, I recently completed an MSc in Management and Sustainability with Distinction (2025), further enhancing my leadership capabilities and commitment to integrating sustainable practices within the food industry.

DR Sarah Hasnip is Head of Fapas® at Fera Science Ltd., leading one of the world's largest proficiency testing providers for food, environmental, water and laboratory testing. With extensive experience in laboratory quality assurance and proficiency testing, Sarah works closely with laboratories, regulators and industry partners across more than 150 countries to support analytical excellence and confidence in testing.

Zeeshan “Zee” is the Director of Partnerships at Uncountable, a platform accelerating materials and life-science innovation. He helps global organizations modernize their data infrastructure, ensuring that high-quality, AI-ready assets drive success across both product development and quality standards. With over 15 years of experience in digital transformation, Zeeshan previously held roles at MilliporeSigma, Merck, Avantor / VWR, and Danaher. He partners with industry leaders to convert complex data into measurable competitive advantage and is a frequent speaker on leveraging structured data to optimize the end-to-end product lifecycle.

Rebecca is a Senior Regulatory Advisor at Ashbury, helping clients gain confidence in their compliance by providing practical advice across the food chain, from primary production through to final product labelling. She also helps embed regulatory knowledge across Ashbury by developing and delivering training for the company's technical teams. Prior to joining Ashbury in 2020, Rebecca spent more than 17 years as a qualified investigator and Trading Standards Officer, helping to keep consumers safe and support businesses in meeting their obligations.