New scientific panels elect chairs

Following a three-day ‘science fair’ of talks, meetings and interactive sessions, over 170 scientific experts selected for EFSA’s 10 scientific panels have elected their chairs and started their work.

Dr Juliane Kleiner, acting Head of Risk Assessment and Scientific Assistance, said: “I’m really pleased to welcome our new panel members to Parma this week. The programme we’ve laid on was designed to quickly bring them up to speed on how EFSA works and what we expect of them. All the Panels have busy work plans so it’s important that they hit the ground running.”

 

All 10 panels have elected a chair and two vice-chairs to steer their work over the next three years. The chairs are also members of the EFSA Scientific Committee, which met briefly yesterday and will elect a chair and vice-chairs at its first full plenary meeting in September.

Panel	Chair	Vice-chairs
Additives and products or substances used in animal feed	Vasileios Bampidis	Giovanna Azimonti Roberto Villa
Animal health and welfare	Søren Saxmose Nielsen	Virginie Michel Miguel Angel Miranda
Biological hazards	Kostantinos Koutsoumanis	Ana Allende Lieve Herman
Contaminants in the Food Chain	Dieter Schrenk	Heather Wallace Christer Hogstrand
Food additives and flavourings	Maged Younes	Wim Mennes Maria Jose Frutos Fernandez
Food contact materials, enzymes and processing aids	Vittorio Silano	Henk van Loveren Alicja Mortensen
Genetically modified organisms	Hanspeter Naegeli	Tamas Dalmay Nils Rostoks
Nutrition, novel food and food allergens	Dominique Turck	Androniki Naska Harry McArdle
Plant health	Claude Bragard	Jonathan Yuen Francesco Di Serio
Plant protection products and their residues	Hernandez Jerez Antonio	Silvia Pieper Christopher Topping

The EU Food Law, which established the EFSA, requires the renewal of the Scientific Committee and the panels every three years. This year EFSA is renewing all 10 scientific panels simultaneously for the first time.