Dr. Bert Popping is the chief executive officer of the strategic food consulting company FOCOS. His company advises food manufacturers, startup companies, not-for-profit organisations, investors, laboratories, and governments on strategic food safety solutions and emerging technologies. Bert also serves on the board of directors of AOAC International. He previously worked as chief scientific officer and director of scientific development and regulatory affairs for multi-national contract laboratories in global roles.
He currently serves as co-chair of the ILSI task force on food fraud and is the scientific advisor on food fraud to AOAC International. Bert also serves on numerous standardisation committees and government working groups related to food fraud, including CEN TC 460, and the German §64 LFGB (official German methods working group).

Roberto is currently holding two positions at Barilla, Vice President Global Quality & Food Safety and R&D Strategy.

His career with Barilla started more than 30 years ago, with several assignments in Product Development, Process Development, Research, Innovation, Quality and Food safety, with increased leadership responsibilities.

Prior to his current role, he was Vice President Product Development and Global Center of Expertise Bakery for Barilla, where he successfully completed projects on product portfolio innovation, renovation and design to value.

Before joining Product Development, Roberto has held the position of Research Development and Quality Director at Kamps, part of Barilla Group, in Germany and Netherlands, supporting the company turnaround.

Jacek Czarnecki is an expert in the field of food law, food safety and quality, and consumer communication.

At Nestlé Polska, he is responsible for the scope of food legislation and scientific relations. He also manages the area of master data quality and completeness in the processes of developing recipes, creating labels, and communicating technical information about products.

He is the vice president of the Polish Federation of Food Industry, where he chairs the committee for food legislation and safety. He is also the vice president of the Polish Association of Food Industry Employers in the Employers Confederation and a participant in the works of the Advertising Council and Food Sector Council for Competencies. He is a member of the editorial board of FoodLex, a quarterly for food regulatory and quality professionals.

He’s also associated with the faculty of human nutrition of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences, where he graduated, obtained a doctoral degree, and with whom he actively cooperates, among others, as an author of the publications and a member of the faculty's curriculum council.

Prof. Dr. Hans Verhagen has over 40 years of experience in food safety and nutrition. He is a certified toxicologist and nutritionist. He worked at Universities (Nijmegen, Maastricht, Ulster, Copenhagen), in contract research (TNO), in industry (Unilever), for the national government (RIVM), and EFSA from 2015-2020. From 2006-2015 he was a member of the EFSA-NDA panel, working on health claims and novel foods. He is a professor at the University of Ulster (Northern Ireland) and at the Technical University Denmark (DTU, Denmark). Since 2020, he is owner and consultant of Food Safety & Nutrition Consultancy in the Netherlands (https://www.fsnconsultancy.nl/).

In February 2021, Pappas Vasileios graduated from the University of the Aegean, school of environment, department of food science and nutrition. He passed an internship at the Agricultural Poultry Cooperative of Ioannina (APCI) Pindos location in the chemical-microbiological laboratory working on safety and quality. Since December 2021, he has been working as the head of research and development at APCI Pindos.

Andrew Manly joined the packaging sector in 1977 and became the founding CEO of the UK Processing & Packaging Machinery Trade Association – a position he held from 1987 to 2005. He then spent a brief period as the head of the UK’s Machine Tool Association before returning to the packaging sector in 2008 as a journalist and consultant. He has presented papers on packaging technologies in more than 70 countries and writes extensively on packaging matters for several journals around the world. He is a board member of the International Packaging Press Organisation (IPPO) and, in 2011, helped found the Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association (AIPIA). He is currently the communications director at AIPIA and, in addition to editing its newsletter, helps organise the annual AIPIA World Congress.

Pranav Shah is the Global Market Director for Dairy and Plant-based. He is working with SPX FLOW in Denmark. He has a total of 22 years of experience in the food and dairy industry. In his current role, he looks after new product development, business development and business expansion within the dairy and food applications.

Mary-Liis Kütt has been working in food science for over 15 years. Starting her studies first in the field of Food Technology and Product Development at TalTech, she defended her doctorate in food science at Aarhus University, Denmark in 2015. In 2016, she did her postdoc at the University of Vienna, Austria, studying the effects of mycotoxins on the human body and working in the core laboratory of analytical chemistry. After her studies, Mary-Liis started working at the Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies (TFTAK) cultivating various microorganisms such as yeasts, bacteria, and fungi. She has studied different microorganisms from the perspective of the food industry, applying them to the production of dairy, beverage, and plant-based alternatives. Currently, Mary-Liis works at the biotech startup ÄIO, which uses microorganisms to produce unique fats to replace unsustainable palm oil and coconut fat in various meat and dairy alternatives.