Advisory Committee
safefood is assisted by an Advisory Committee of experts with a broad range of professional expertise, experience and backgrounds.
Membership of the Committee is voluntary and the overarching role of the members is the provision of technical advice and guidance to assist safefood in setting strategy and successfully delivering on the elements of its three-year Corporate and annual Business Plans.
The Advisory Committee complements the safefood Advisory Board and both structures are appointed by the North South Ministerial Council.
The membership is representative of the key disciplines of food science, diet & health, the food industry, communications, and state & regulatory.
New SAC Members 2020
Dr Martin Rose
Dr Martin Rose worked for over 30 years as a UK government scientist with Fera (previously CSL, Defra, MAFF) with a focus on the application of analytical chemistry to studies on dietary exposure, toxicology, environmental pathways, environmental monitoring, food authenticity, ecotoxicology, risk assessment and contingency responses for environmental contaminants in food. He is a former head of UK National Reference Laboratory for chemical contaminants in food.
Martin is a former member of the EFSA CONTAM and ANS Panels and is currently a member of several EFSA working groups. He is a member of the UK Government Scientific Advisory Committee Expert Group on Additives, Enzymes and other Regulated Products (part of Committee on Toxicity), a member of the FAPAS® advisory committee, and a member of the UK expert committee on pesticides.
Since 2017, Martin has been working as an independent science consultant, for organisations including Fera Science Ltd., the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool, United Nations (FAO and ITC) on publicly funded research projects, risk assessment activities, research project monitoring and evaluation, and supporting activities to implement food control systems in less developed countries.
Martin has published widely, is an editorial board member for several journals and has supported the organisation of several international science conferences.
Martin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry where he is a Member of the Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division (ESED) Council and a committee member of the Food and Toxicology Interest Groups.
Prof Mary Brennan
Professor Mary Brennan completed her Bachelor of Agricultural and Food Engineering (BE) degree at University College Dublin (Ireland) in 1998, her MSc. in International Agricultural and Food Marketing from Newcastle University (UK) in 1999 and her PhD (by published work) from Newcastle University (UK) in 2011. Since September 1999, she held a series of academic positions at Newcastle University before moving to University of Edinburgh Business School in Nov 2013 where she has been Head of the Marketing Group (2015-2019), is currently Director of UG Programmes (2017-current) and Acting Deputy Dean (20/21) and was promoted in 2017 to a Personal Chair in Food Marketing and Society.
Mary adopts an interdisciplinary, systems based approach to her research drawing on, and working with, many different disciplines to investigate complex food policy challenges. She explores the complex, dynamic, unpredictable and often unstable relationships people have with food, how these shape everyday food practices, underpin contemporary food policy challenges and are often considered resistant to change.
She complements her theoretical and conceptual contributions to food marketing and society with creative interdisciplinary collaborations and innovative mixed method research offering new techniques and insights into everyday food practices, especially those considered “less than ideal” and often practiced behind closed, domestic and school/workplace doors (i.e. eating food past its use-by date; throwing out edible food; under-cooking of meat; over-consumption of food; plate waste in schools).
Her research also explores the concept of sustainable food in terms of production, procurement and consumption with specific focus on school food systems (EU H2020 funded Strength 2 Food project).
She is a founding and active member of FRIED, the Food Researchers in Edinburgh Network and in September 2018 was appointed Chair of the Scottish Food Coalition (SFC), a coalition of NGO, academic and other organisations who are campaigning for a better, healthier, more sustainable and just food system in Scotland and the introduction of a new Good Food Nation Bill in Scotland. As part of three recent EU funded projects and with her work with the SFC, she have extensive experience in designing and undertaking stakeholder consultations from across an array of topics from pesticide risk exposure in Ag and Food; GM Animals, School Food and the proposed new Good Food Nation Bill in Scotland.
Prof Frank Monahan
Frank Monahan is a Professor of Food Science at University College Dublin. He holds a B.Sc (Biochemistry) from UCD and a PhD (Food Science and Technology) from University College Cork. Prior to joining UCD he was a postdoctoral scientist at the University of California, Davis and a visiting scholar at Michigan State University. His research interests are in food (particularly meat) authentication, muscle fatty acids and antioxidants and in the impact of animal production factors on meat composition and quality. He has over 150 published peer reviewed papers and over 25 year of experience in leading/collaborating in national and international funded research.
Clare Mac Evilly
Claire Mac Evilly is the CEO of Airfield Estate in Dundrum, Dublin. Airfield is a 38 acre estate, home to a working farm and gardens welcoming 180,000 visitors every year. Claire is a public health nutritionist by background and has an interest in communicating science to diverse audiences.
She is the co-founder of SciCom – Ireland’s largest science communication conference, founding Director of the European Nutrition Leadership Advanced Programme and is the former chair of Food Industry Ireland’s Public Affairs Group.
Dr Muiris O'Ceidigh
Dr Muiris O’Ceidigh is the CEO of the National Milk Agency. He has specialist expertise in Regulation of Professions and Corporate Governance. Muiris has a Doctorate in Governance and a is solicitor, he is a member Veterinary Council of Ireland and is formerly a Public Interest Director on the Medical Science Registration Board, and a former Director of the Irish Red Cross. Currently a member of the Property Services Regulation Authority, he recently was appointed to the board of the Faculty of Pathology of the Royal College of Physicians.
Muiris was appointed a Director of the Economic Research Institute of Northern Ireland by the UK government and the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Muiris has studied at Cambridge and Oxford University and is a business mentor on Corporate Governance and Regulation at the Cambridge Institute of Sustainable leadership at Cambridge University. Muiris is a former winner of the Ledwidge International Poetry Prize, and is also a Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation and a member of Dalkey Writers Workshop.
Muiris is Chairman of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties and has researched Civil & Human Rights and the media. He is an Honorary Patron of Jeanie Johnson Education Foundation. He has expertise in financial technology and real estate technology (PROPTECH) having successfully undertaken the FINTECH programme at Oxford University.
Dr Nazih Eldin
Dr Nazih Eldin was born in Israel into a Palestinian family. He attended municipal schools before completing his medical studies at the Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. As a junior doctor he worked in Israel, Ireland and England. In 1987 he decided to move into Public Health where one of his researches was into behavioural change which took him into his specialty: Health Promotion. Following an MSc in Health Promotion from King’s College London he worked at all levels from a District Health Promotion Officer to Head of Health Promotion for Dublin and the North East. He also was the Director of the Irish Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and HSE Lead on Obesity. He spent the last three years as the National Obesity Advisor at the Department of Health.
Dr Eldin has been extensively published. His papers covered all disciplines of health promotion and disease prevention. These included topics such as smoking, accident prevention, HIV & Aids, Road Traffic Accidents, Childhood Obesity Surveillance, European Survey of Childhood Overweight and Obesity, Drug Prevention etc. Examples of his achievements are: UK National Award for Health Alliances (1995), Crystal Clear Health Literacy Award (2011), E-Government Awards (overall and innovations awards - 2011) and Paul Harris Award from Rotary for charitable work.
Dr Eldin is married to Mary and together they have three children: Samir, Yousef and Soraya.
Prof Eileen Gibney
Eileen Gibney is a Prof. of Nutrition at University College Dublin. Eileen completed a degree in human nutrition from Ulster University, and obtained her PhD from the Dunn Nutrition Unit, University of Cambridge in 2001. She went on to complete an MSc in Molecular Medicine (TCD).
Eileen held post-doctoral positions at the University of Newcastle and Trinity College Dublin, before joining UCD. Her research strategy aims to develop dietary intake technology capabilities for use in nutritional research, develop novel methods to assess and analyse dietary intakes – including the development of large-cloud based data analysis and develop personalised nutrition feedback algorithms.
In addition, her work aims to understand the influence of metabolism and diet on inter-individual variability in response to consumption of foods, for use in personalised nutrition recommendations. She has acted as both Lead Investigator and Collaborator in National and European projects including Food for Health Ireland, JINGO, FNS-Cloud, Insight, Foodbook24 and many more.
She is a Deputy Director of the UCD Institute of Food and Health, and is currently the Director of Executive Education within the School of Agriculture and Food Science. Eileen was a Director of the Irish Association for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (IrSPEN) from 2010 to 2019. She is currently a Trustee of the Nutrition Society of UK and Ireland.
Mary Daly
Mary Daly is a Graduate of UCC and TU Dublin. She served as an Army Officer for 21 years and implemented Food Safety Management for the Defence Forces both at home and overseas.
Mary established The Food Safety Company in 2000, which is acknowledged as Irelands leading Food Safety Training and Consultancy Company.
Mary is a founder member and past Chairperson of The Food Safety Professionals Association.
She leads a Team of licensed Trainers and expert Auditors throughout the Island of Ireland. She is special advisor to many national bodies including The Irish Hotel Federation, Association of Craft Butchers of Ireland and Failte Ireland.
Dr Mary P. Corcoran
Mary P. Corcoran is Professor of Sociology at Maynooth University. A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and Columbia University, New York, her research interests lie primarily in the fields of urban sociology, public culture and the sociology of migration. A Taoiseach’s nominee to the National Economic and Social Forum, Corcoran has also served previously on the Senate of the NUI and on the Social Science Committee of the RIA.
She is currently in her second term of office as a member of Maynooth University’s Governing Authority. She serves as a member of the Local Community Development Committee, South Dublin County Council, and is also a member of the Board of the Childhood Development Initiative.
Prof Elizabeth Keane
Prof Keane is a Public Health Physician and adjunct Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology in the School of Public Health in University College Cork. Dr Keane graduated in Medicine from University College Cork, obtained MPH from UCD and is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians. She was Director of Public Health in HSE South (Cork and Kerry) from 1995 until 2014. Dr Keane was elected Dean of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians in 2014.
Dr Keane has held several Ministerial appointments on statutory Boards including the National Cancer Registry, Irish Blood Transfusion Service, Interim Health Information and Quality Authority, Irish Medicines Board and the Health Products Regulatory Authority. With over 30 years’ experience in the practice of Public Health Medicine, Dr Keane has a particular interest in the role of food, food safety and healthy eating as determinants of population health.
Anne Marie Crowley
Further details to come
Dr Rhodri Evans
Further details to come
