Food Standards Committee

The Food Standards Committee advises the Board of Governors on food legislation and technical issues to ensure that the Charity’s food information and standards are up to date. The Committee includes experts from the food industry with relevant experience in research, policy development, regulatory affairs and legislation, including representatives from the manufacturing, retailing and catering industries.

René Crevel - Director, René Crevel Consulting Limited

Rene FSCRené runs a consultancy centred on food allergens and their management, but also encompassing wider aspects of allergenicity and immune modulation as related to toxicology. Having qualified initially in mammalian physiology and has postgraduate qualifications in Immunology and Toxicology, he had a career at Unilever, where he was responsible for advice and guidance on allergenicity, with an emphasis on food allergy and allergen risk assessment and management to Unilever Companies, and for leading Unilever’s food allergy research programme. He also represented the company in the major EU food allergy projects Europrevall (2005 - 2009) and iFAAM (2013 - 2017).

René holds appointments at the University of Manchester (UK) and the University of Nebraska Lincoln. He has authored papers and book chapters on various aspects of food allergy, including risk assessment and management of food allergens. He also currently a scientific advisor to the ILSI Europe Food Allergy Task Force, which he previously chaired and has just completed 9 years as a member of the UK’s Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment. More recently, he contributed to the FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Risk Assessment of Allergens, chairing the 2nd meeting of the Expert Committee (15 March - 2 April 2021).

David Pickering - Team Leader, Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards

David has a wealth of experience and expertise in the areas of food law, food standards and enforcement having worked for Buckinghamshire and Surrey Trading Standards for over 30 years. He is also the joint lead officer for Food and Nutrition for the Trading Standards Institute.

Alex Turtle - Food Safety & Sectors Executive, Food and Drink Federation

Alex TurtleAlex works as a Food Safety and Sectors Executive in the Regulatory, Science and Health Division of the FDF with responsibility for the area of allergens and the Allergens Steering Group. Along with Secretariat support, his role involves monitoring scientific, technical and regulatory developments, including the study and analysis of relevant UK Government and EU policies and proposals as they relate to allergens for the food and drink industry. Alex also represents FDF on the FoodDrinkEurope Expert Committee on allergens. He also provides a secretariat role for the FDF Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Sector Group and FDF Ice Cream Sector Group, particularly in relation to regulatory and technical issues. Before joining the FDF, Alex worked as a Regulator Affairs Advisor for both Leatherhead Food Research and Campden BRI.

Maureen Burnside – Coeliac UK Board Of Governers

Maureen BurnsideMaureen Burnside has over 30 years of experience as a solicitor, specialising in corporate and commercial law. She has knowledge of the food sector though seven years' working in the FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) sector, latterly as Senior Legal Counsel with Muller, and before that she was a partner for nearly 20 years in one of Scotland's top law firms. She combines a strong knowledge of commercial law with a practical, commercial approach to its application. 

She is now providing consultancy legal services to FMCG companies whilst helping manage the family farm in Scotland, which gives her time to offer her skills to charities such as Coeliac UK. She was diagnosed with coeliac disease three years ago but is very familiar with the disease and its challenges as her mother was diagnosed over twenty years ago.

Barbara Hirst - Senior Consultant, Food Safety and Quality, RSSL

Barbara HirstBarbara is a Consultant in the Food Safety and Quality team at RSSL. She has worked in this team since 2014 and previously, she was the Laboratory Manager of the RSSL department of DNA and Protein which is responsible for the analytical testing for allergens. During this time, she also supported manufacturing sites to advise on sampling and testing options and interpretation of results.

Barbara has a B.Sc. in Genetics and has been working in the field of Molecular Biology since she graduated. She has worked at RSSL since 1998 and was responsible for growing the analytical testing service in the area of allergens as well as more recently working to grow the consultancy offering. Barbara now has extensive experience in partnering with clients to understand the issues they have with allergen control, and in providing them with targeted support through factory visits and training, as well as making recommendations around analytical testing.

Callum Yule - Policy Advisor, Food Standards Scotland

Representative from - Food Hypersensitivity - Food Policy, Food Standards Agency