Scientific Committee
The FSAI is legally obliged to base its opinions on scientific grounds and to develop food standards on the basis of the best, most up-to-date scientific advice available. To aid the FSAI in risk assessment, which underpins risk management decisions, the current Scientific Committee was set up in 2011 in accordance with Article 34 of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland Act, 1998.
The Committee is made up of scientists, from a variety of disciplines, working in a voluntary capacity. The Committee has a major influence on policy decisions of the FSAI, including advice on the implementation and administration of food inspection services and on the nutritional value of food. It also provides clarity on scientific and technical issues relating to food safety and hygiene.
Food safety issues can require specific knowledge and it is frequently appropriate to form a Sub-committee of experts to address specific scientific tasks. The Scientific Committee provides overall strategic direction to its Sub-committees (of which there are currently five) and approves their work programmes.
Members
The members of the FSAI Scientific Committee are:
- Prof. Albert Flynn (Chair) - University College Cork
Professor Albert Flynn, B.Sc., Ph.D. (NUI, Galway), is Professor in Nutrition in the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, University College, Cork . His areas of particular interest include food safety risk assessment, gene-nutrient interaction in bone metabolism, food fortification and risk benefit assessment of nutrients. Professor Flynn is Chair of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland's Scientific Committee. He is also a member of the European Food Safety Authority's Scientific Committee and is Chair of its Panel for Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies.
- Prof John Daniel Collins - University College Dublin
Professor John Daniel Collins MVB MVM MS (Calif.) PhD MRCVS is Professor Emeritus of Farm Animal Clinical Studies at University College, Dublin (UCD). Formerly he was the Chair of UCD's Centre for Food Safety and Director of the Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis at UCD.
Professor Collins is a member and former Chair of the European Food Safety Authority's Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards. He is also a member of the European Commission’s Task Force on Animal Disease (Tuberculosis) Eradication Programmes in Member States.
He served as a member of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s outgoing Scientific Committee and its Microbiology sub-Committee and of a number of working groups. He is a member of current Board of the Authority.
Professor Collins is an Honorary Member of the European College of Veterinary Public Health and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Food Science and Technology of Ireland.
He specialises in veterinary preventive medicine and food safety.
- Dr Colette Bonner - Department of Health and Children
Colette Bonner, MB Bch, BAO, MPH, FFPHMI, is Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health. The office of the Chief Medical Officer responsibilities include policy on a diverse range of medical and public health matters including patient safety, quality in health care, public health, reproductive health and social inclusion. The office also provides expert medical and public health evidence, analysis and advice to the Minister and to the Department. Dr Bonner covers the area of health protection including infectious diseases, immunisation and issues on environmental health. The Department is involved in the formulation of policy and legislation in these important areas. This requires intersectoral working at both national and international level.
- Prof Martin Cormican - Medical Microbiology, University College Hospital, Galway
Martin Cormican is Consultant Microbiologist at Galway University Hospital and Professor of Bacteriology in the Medical School at NUIGalway since 1999. He is currently Director of the National Salmonella, Shigella and Listeria Reference Laboratory at Galway. He graduated from the Medical School in NUIGalway in 1986 and pursued post graduate training in Ireland, UK and United states prior to his appointment as Consultant Immunologist at Galway University Hospital from 1996-1999. He has published in the areas of food and water borne infection, antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial resistant bacteria in the environment. .
- Dr Geraldine Duffy - Teagasc
Dr Geraldine Duffy is Head of the Food Safety Department at Teagasc Food Research Centre (Ashtown, Dublin and Moorepark, Co. Cork). She obtained a B.Sc. from University College Dublin and a Ph.D from University of Ulster, Jordanstown, N.I. and undertook post-graduate and post-doctoral fellowships in The Netherlands, UK and USA. Her specific area of interest is microbial food safety focusing on the transmission, behaviour and control of microbial pathogens along the farm to fork food chain. She has a high involvement in international research programmes, including the EU Framework Programme and is co-ordinator of an integrated multi-national project on beef safety and quality (Prosafebeef). She is a member of the microbiological sub-committee of the FSAI and serves on working groups for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), and WHO/ FAO.
- Prof Peter Jones - University College Cork
Peter Jones graduated from University College of Wales Aberystwyth (BSc in Agricultural Botany) and gained his PhD in plant genetics and biochemistry from the University of Nottingham. He is Associate Professor in the Department of zoology, Ecology and Plant Science in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences. His research interests lie in the areas of the development of novel crops, the improvement of stress response in crops and the development of novel agricultural products from food waste and seaweeds.
- Prof Brian McKenna - University College Dublin
Professor of Food Science, University College Dublin
Former principal, College of Life Sciences
Former Vice-President for Planning and Development of UCD
Former Dean of Postgraduate Studies
Editor - Journal of Food Engineering (1988 to date)
President elect (from Oct 2005) European Federation of Food Science & Technology
Invited keynote speaker at three to four congresses per annum
Current research interests: Physical properties of foods; Rapid chilling of beef and lamb; Meat texture; Food Safety and Shelf-life prediction of foods; Radio frequency heating of foods; Formulation of functional drinks; Drug delivery in foods.
- Dr Paul McKeown - Health Protection Surveillance Centre
Dr Paul McKeown graduated in medicine from University College Dublin in 1984 and trained as a General Practitioner in the UK. He returned to Ireland where he trained in Public Health Medicine, spending a portion of his training in the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. In 2001 he was appointed a Consultant in Public Health Medicine at the Health Protection Surveillance Centre where he has responsibility for surveillance and provision of expert advice on gastroenteric and zoonotic diseases, vectorborne disease and emerging disease. He has an academic appointment in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. He has served on a number of national advisory and guidance groups in the area of infectious diseases. Dr McKeown is participant in a number of EU surveillance and research initiatives in the field of infectious disease including Enter-net (an EU Surveillance Network on enteric bacteria), DIVINE-net (an EU Surveillance initiative on enteric viruses) and SHIPSAN (an EU ship sanitation research group). He has participated in a number of international research initiatives including control of intestinal infectious disease in various settings, management of viral gastroenteritis on board cruise ships, the effect of global warming on enteric disease emergence and burden of infectious intestinal studies. His research and professional interests and areas of publication include infectious intestinal disease (particularly that due to VTEC, norovirus and cryptosporidium), zoonotic disease and emerging infections.
- Dr Michael O'Keeffe - Residue Specialist
Dr. Michael O'Keeffe is a specialist in the area of chemical contaminants in food. Until 2008 he was employed as Senior Principal Research Officer at Ashtown Food Research Centre, Teagasc, working in the Food Safety Department on contaminant residue studies. Dr. O'Keeffe has wide experience in research on residues of prohibited substances, veterinary drugs and other contaminants in food, including pesticides, anabolic steroids, beta-agonists, antimicrobials, anthelmintics and anticoccidials, and has particular interests in bound residues and development of analytical techniques. He has been involved in many national and European research projects on chemical food safety. He has published widely in the area of chemical contaminants in food and was responsible for developing the National Food Residue Database. In 2008, Dr. O'Keeffe was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the EuroResidue Foundation, the Netherlands. More recently, Dr. O’Keeffe has been involved as a scientific expert in an EFSA Working Group on Meat Inspection – contaminants.
- Dr Dan O'Sullivan - Pesticide Control Service, Dept of Agriculture and Food
Dan O’Sullivan was born in Kerry and now living in Co. Meath. He graduated from UCD in 1972 with a B. Sc (hons) in chemistry. He went on to complete a Ph. D. from UCD in 1975 on the study of “cyclic monothio-beta-ketones”. He worked in the Environmental Unit of the Fisheries Research Centre from 1976 to 1981 before moving the to Pesticide Control Laboratory in the Department of Agriculture in 1981. The Pesticide Control Laboratory was responsible for the planning and implementation of the Pesticide Residue Monitoring programme controlling residues of pesticides in food sold on the Irish market. In 2009 he was promoted to the Head of Agricultural Laboratories, with responsibility for managing the Pesticide Control Laboratory, the Dairy Science Laboratories, the Seed Testing Laboratory and the Plant Health Laboratory
- Dr Margaret O’Sullivan - Health Service Executive
Margaret O’ Sullivan MB BCh BAO, MPH, FFPHMI is Consultant in Public Health Medicine with the Department of Public Health, Health Service Executive (HSE-South), based in Cork. Her specialist interests, and brief, include the surveillance and control of food borne and waterborne infections, zoonotic diseases and tuberculosis.
Dr O’ Sullivan is chair of the National Zoonoses Committee. She serves on a number of national advisory groups including the HSE’s National TB Advisory Committee and the National Drinking Water Group. She is a member of the Board of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine, and a former Vice-Dean of the Faculty. She is a member of the Veterinary Council of Ireland.
- Mr Ray Parle - Health Service Executive
Ray Parle has been a Principal Environmental Health Officer in the Health Service Executive South region since 1993. During his career he has been much involved in work in the field of microbiological monitoring of food businesses. Ray has also been a member of the FSAI national HACCP committee. He earned his diploma in Health Inspection from Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in 1980 and obtained his Masters in Environmental Health Risk Assessment (1st class honours) from DIT in 2001. Ray is a member of the HSE National Drinking Water Group which advises on issues relating to drinking water and has drafted protocols on the role of HSE personnel in relation to drinking water and public health and liaison with Water Services Authorities. Ray is also a member of the Irish Expert Body on Fluorides and Health, set up by the Minister for Health & Children in 2004 to advise on the implementation of the recommendations of the Forum on Fluoridation. He was the co-ordinator for the South-Eastern Health Board of a pilot initiative involving three health boards to draw up a quality management system for the E.H. service, which achieved ISO 9000 accreditation in 1999. He served as the inaugural chairman of a national steering committee, which had the function of extending the system throughout the country.
- Dr Iona Pratt - Consultant Toxicologist, FSAI
Dr Pratt, BA (Mod.), Ph.D., Dip. Tox. joined the FSAI from the Health and Safety Authority (Ireland) where she was Senior Toxicologist and Director of Specialist Units, where she took a six-month secondment as Visiting Scientist with the European Commission at its Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. She has lectured and researched at University College, Dublin, as a member of the Pharmacology Department, where her areas of interest were nephrotoxicity, pulmonary toxicity and the use of in vitro models in toxicology. Her initial career in toxicology was with the Central Toxicology Laboratory of Imperial Chemical Industries, following a primary degree in chemistry and postgraduate research in biochemistry leading to a Ph.D. in Trinity College, Dublin.
- Ms Ita Saul - Our Lady’s Childrens Hospital, Crumlin
Following graduation as a dietitian from Dublin Institute of Technology, Kevin Street (1976), Ita was awarded a French Government scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies at the Conservatoire National Arts et Metiers(CNAM)in Paris where she obtained a Certificat d’etudes Superieures (CES) On her return to Dublin in 1977, she commenced her clinical career at The Children’s Hospital, Temple Street Dublin, establishing a full time dietetic service for patients with rare Inherited Metabolic Disorders and was very involved in clinical research in this highly specialised area. She presented at many national and international conferences and published research papers in the specialty In addition she was visiting lecturer on this specialist area of dietetics on the BSc Human Nutrition & Dietetics course, and on various aspects of paediatric nutrition to Nursing undergraduates. In 1995 she was appointed Dietitian Manager at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, the largest paediatric hospital in Ireland with many nutrition-related specialties. In addition to managing a team of 14 dietitans covering all specialties within the hospital, she retains a small clinical workload. In addition to her clinical work, Ita participated as a member of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland’s (FSAI) Sub Committee which produced Recommendations for a National Infant Feeding Policy in Ireland in 1999. Currently Ita chairs the Expert Working Group revising and updating this policy. She has been a member of the FSAI Nutrition Sub Committee since 2005 and also participated in the committee which produced the Recommendations for Vitamin D Supplementation in Infants in 2007 and is a member of the group revising the Healthy Eating Dietary Guidelines for the Republic of Ireland.
- Dr Paula Barry Walsh - Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Paula attended UCD, gaining a veterinary degree in 1982. After working in general practice both in Ireland and UK, she joined the Local Authority Veterinary Service in 1990, working at Galway Corporation and Galway Co. Council, dealing with public health, animal health and animal welfare duties.
In 1994, she left the LAVS and joined the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, with responsibility for public health duties in meat establishments. Since 1999, she moved to Dublin. Paula has also undertaken a Certificate in Welfare, Ethics and Law, and completed an MSc in Food Technology. She is now a Senior Superintending Veterinary Inspection in the Veterinary Public Health Inspection Service.
A supplement in the January/February 2010 newsletter reviewed the six years (2005-2010) of the second Scientific Committee and its achievements.
Last reviewed: 10/8/2011