Food Authenticity (EP 6 - Part 1)

About Selvarani Elahi MBE

Selvarani is the UK Deputy Government Chemist and Executive Director of the Food Authenticity Network at LGC. She has over 30 years’ experience in the analysis of food and agriculture samples working across a variety of policy areas, with different stakeholder groups, to improve standards in measurement science.

Selvarani has been the Chair of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Authenticity Methods Working Group since 2013. She also serves on Defra’s Authenticity Steering Group and the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Methods Committee’s Feed and Food Authenticity sub-committee. She is part of the UK delegation for the Codex Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling and is part of the UK delegation that serves on the CEN committee for standardisation of methods for food authenticity.

Selvarani leads the Food Authenticity Network (www.foodauthenticity.global), which is an open access website that gathers information on food authenticity testing, food fraud mitigation and food supply chain integrity helping to build more resilient food supply chains. It now has over 2,700 members from 81 countries/territories and in 2020, over 21,500 unique users from 133 countries accessed the website.

Selvarani a Chartered Chemist and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology.

In October 2020, Selvarani was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020 for services to food measurement services.

Contact details:

Selvarani.Elahi@lgcgroup.com

www.linkedin.com/in/selvarani-elahi-13a26640

www.twitter.com/selvaranielahi

Sterling Crew FRSPH, FIFST, FCIEH, CEnvH, CSci.

Sterling is Chair of the Food Authenticity Network Advisory Board, He is also the Independent Scientific Advisor at Campden BRI and sits on its board. Sterling is co-founder of Kitchen Conversation, Managing Director of SQS ltd., Strategic Advisor at Shield Safety Group and Dynamic Risk Indicator.  He sits on the audit governance board at Eurofins and he is the Scientific Advisor for OLIO. Sterling is a past Vice President of the IFST and the recipient of the IFST Honorary Fellowship for 2020. He chairs its Food Safety Group .He is a public health and food Safety commentator.

Sterling has over 35 years’ experience working in the food industry in the fields of food safety, governance, horizon scanning and innovation. He started his career in government before a successful track history in retailing, with Marks and Spencer and Tesco. He has also worked in the branded environment for Coca-Cola and Disney, and as a Technical Director for two manufacturers. With experience as a regulator, retailer and manufacturer he has a unique perspective of the global food supply chain.

MARK WOOLFE, Ph.D., FIFST, FRSC

Mark trained as a food scientist/technologist and has worked in industry and universities in the UK and abroad, before joining MAFF and the FSA. His responsibilities covered negotiation and implementation of labelling and standards for the EU Single Market. He has also been active in both British and international standards committees. He was also responsible for the Government’s Food Authenticity Programme to develop novel methods and organising national surveys to identify mislabelling/misdescription of foods. He has worked closely with enforcement laboratories and local authorities to transfer new methodology and resolve problems of mislabelling and fraud. He retired from the FSA in April 2009. Since retiring Mark has continued his authenticity work and chairs the RSC’s Food and Feed Authenticity Expert Working Group  combined with BSI’s AW/34/46 which mirrors the new CEN TC460 on Food Authenticity. He is Network Secretary of the Food Authenticity Network, which is an open access resource for authenticity methods and fraud mitigation. He has been an external assessor for EU research proposals and two large EU projects on authenticity.