Speakers

Androula Vassiliou is the current EU Health Commissioner.

She has practiced Law in Cyprus for twenty years (1968-1988). During this period she acted as Legal Advisor to The Chartered Standard Bank and later, to the Bank of Cyprus. She had also been on the Board of many public and private companies.

She gave up her legal practice in 1988, upon her husband's election to the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus.

In the year 1996 she was elected Member of the Cyprus House of Representatives representing the Movement of United Democrats, and in 2001 she was re elected for a second term of five years. During her parliamentary years she served on the following committees: Foreign Affairs Committee, Legal Affairs Committee, Committee on Education and Culture, Committee on Environment and the European Affairs Committee.

During this period she was also a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee of Cyprus and the EU. She was an Alternate Representative of the Cyprus Parliament to the Convention for the Future of Europe (2001-2003) and she participated actively in the whole process.

She has been Vice President of the European Liberal Democrats and Reform Party (ELDR) (2001-2006) and as such she was the chairperson of the European Liberal Women's Network.

Bill Newton Dunn is Liberal Democrat MEP for the East Midlands region in the UK.

He was first elected to the EP in 1979 and currently is a member of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection and the Budgetary Control committee. Bill Newton Dunn also is a substitute member for the Civil Liberties committee and involved in the delegation to Japan and in the Tibet Intergroup.

His fields of interests include, amongst other things, international organised crime, consumer protection issues and customs cooperation. He has written several books including, most recently, a collection of "Memories of the first elected European Parliament" and a political story set in the European Parliament "The Devil Knew Not".

Bill Newton Dunn is married with two journalist children.

Nicolas Bouvé joined Godiva November 2004, as the Managing Director of Godiva Europe. He is responsible for the Brussels manufacturing facility and office.

Nicolas joins Godiva from Häagen-Dazs, a division of General Mills, where he has worked for the last thirteen years. Nicolas was most recently International Director, Häagen-Dazs Shops based in London, and was a member of the General Mills International Executive Committee. In this role, Nicolas was responsible for defining and implementing strategy for 560 shops located in 48 countries. He worked closely with country General Managers, Franchisees and Joint Venture partners in three major regions; Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Prior to this role, Nicolas was the Managing Director for Europe and Eurasia, with direct responsibility for more than 300 Häagen-Dazs shops. He also held the roles of: Brand Director, in charge of global European brand communications; Regional Operations Director, in charge of shops in France, Benelux and Italy; and Shop Operations Director, Häagen-Dazs France.

Prior to Häagen-Dazs, Nicolas spent two years at Lenotre-Accor Group as Deputy Director, Shop Operations. He also spent two years working for Flo-Prestige as a Shop Director. Nicolas began his career in the hospitality business, where he managed, owned and operated restaurants. Nicolas is a graduate of the Business School in Paris, E.D.C., where he received his diploma in Business.

Nicolas resides in Brussels with his wife Jane.

Michel Coomans has spent more than 15 years in the Information Technology industry in Europe, U.S.A and Canada.

He joined the European Commission in 1989, working on the Industrial Research programme ESPRIT. In 1994 he moved to the Industrial Policy Directorate of DG Industry and became responsible for the external aspects of Enterprise Policy, covering Government and business discussions with third world countries. He has also spent some time as head of human resources in DG Enterprise and Industry.

He is currently head of "Food Industry" in DG Enterprise and Industry, whose main mission is the reinforcement of the sector's competitiveness. His responsibilities cover policy related aspects of the sector, including adaptation of food technologies, innovation of SMEs, management of an export refund regime and trade negotiations for Processed Agriculture Products.

Basil Mathioudakis is Head of Unit for “Food law, nutrition and labelling” in DG for Health and Consumer Protection of the European Commission.

Mr Mathioudakis has a scientific background, having studied first Biochemistry and then Human Nutrition at the University of London.

He joined the European Commission in 1982. He has worked on food legislation for 25 years covering a variety of dossiers (dietetic foods, food supplements, nutrition labelling and addition of vitamins and minerals to foods). Since 2004 he chairs the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCFCAH) - section General Food Law.

As representative of the European Commission has followed work on the relevant subjects at international level (Codex Alimentarius, World Health Organisation, Food and Agriculture Organisation).

He also follows closely the work of the scientific advisory bodies in the area of Nutrition in general and in particular on the subjects for which his unit is responsible. For 15 years (1982-1997) he was the secretary of the Working Group on Nutrition and Dietetic Foods of the Scientific Committee for Food of the European Commission.

Will Gilroy has worked at the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) since 2002 as a communications and public affairs expert on food and beverage advertising and advertising and children. He coordinates 'the Responsible Advertising and Children Programme'

(www.responsible-advertising.org), a global industry coalition bringing together advertisers, agencies, the media and a number of industry sectors on issues relating to advertising and children.

Before joining the WFA he spent 7 years as a freelance journalist writing articles and documentaries on a wide range of issues, including European politics, Corporate Social Responsibility, employment, travel and sport for a number of broadcasters and publications, including ARTE, Channel 4 and _e Times, London.

He is a graduate of Modern Languages from St.Catherine’s College, Oxford University and speaks fluent French and Spanish.

David Zimmer is the Secretary General of CAOBISCO the European Association of Chocolate, Biscuits and Confectionery Industries based in Brussels. David has been Secretary General for six years.

He has 13 years experience of heading up representational and campaign groups in Brussels, including working for the paper, retailing and commerce, and environmental management sectors. Before crossing over to the business sector he worked in the public service for the UK Department of Trade and Industry and in Australia for the Department of Industry.

David has extensive experience in industry policy and leading Trade, commodity and development negotiations in SE Asia, S America, and Japan as well as International Institutions in the EU and the UN.

Professor Francesco Visioli works at the Department of Pharmacological Sciences, University of Milan and is Assistant Professor at the College of Pharmacy, Oregon State University. Dr. Visioli’s research concerns natural antioxidants, as related to atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease, and omega 3 fatty acids. In particular, Dr. Visioli’s group discovered the biological and pharmacological properties of olive oil phenolics. Dr. Visioli authored more than 120 publications, half of which in peer reviewed journals. Currently, Dr Visioli is Associate Editor of Pharmacological Research, official journal of the Italian Pharmacological Society and is member of the Advisory Board of Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research. Further, he is co-editor (with Artemis Simopoulos) of “Mediterranean diets” (2000), Karger Press (now sold out). Finally, he is member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSFAL) and editor of the newsletter.

Claus Vögele is Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at Roehampton University. Claus obtained his PhD from the University of Hamburg, in 1988 and over the last 20 years he has held a number of academic posts at both German and British Universities (St George’s Hospital Medical School, London; School of Psychology, University of Birmingham; Department of Psychology, University of Marburg; Department of Psychology, University of Luton) before joining the School of Human and Life Sciences, Roehampton University in October 2003.

Claus is Director of the University’s Research Centre for Clinical and Health Psychology which focuses on the identification of risk factors for major chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disorders, obesity, eating disorders and HIV/AIDS to develop strategies for better intervention and prevention.

He is consultant editor for over 20 national and international journals and editorial board member of the international journal “Chronic Illness”.

Professor Livio Luzi is Professor of Endocrinology and Professor of Physiology at the University of Milan and San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy where he is Head of the Amino Acid and Stable Isotopes Laboratory and Director of the Nutrition and Metabolism Program.

Dr. Luzi is also Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Miami and a Visiting Scientist at the Diabetes Research Institute.

After receiving his medical degrees from the University of Milan, Dr. Luzi completed research fellowships in Endocrinology at Yale University and in Diabetes/Metabolism at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

From 1993-1996 he was on the faculty of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School as an Assistant Professor, before returning to Italy.

Dr. Luzi’s work focuses on the assessment of metabolic effects of islet transplantation therapy as well as the complications associated with immunosuppression. He has developed a multi-level approach to assess pre- and post-transplant metabolism. By combining blood chemistry, nutritional assessment, and NMR Spectroscopy, which measures the specific concentrations of metabolites and enzyme activities, Dr. Luzi’s research will provide a more complete picture of islet transplantation

Amélie Denis

"Fat in chocolate: Particularities and Optimisation"

Chocolate has regulatory requirements for fat content. From a qualitative point of view, fat in cocoa-based products or chocolate is mainly provided by cocoa butter, which has a specific composition (presence of stearic acid). For example, cocoa-based products that do not exclusively contain cocoa butter, much reformulation has already taken place in order to minimize trans fatty acid content.

Biography: Amélie Denis is an Agro-food engineer specialised in nutrition. She has spent two years in a company Research Center for nutrition. She joined Alliance 7 two years ago, where she holds the position of “Responsable Nutrition”, regrouping ten French food sectors of which chocolate.

Patrizia De Vito

"Merendine"

“Merendine” (from “merenda “a small meal between breakfast and lunch, and lunch and dinner in Italy) are serving-size baked cakes made from traditional recipes. University Research conducted has shown that merendine can give satiation with a lower calorie intake and do not alter metabolism; due to their average nutritional composition and portion size they meet recommended energy intake for children between 7 and 14 years of age at “merenda” time.

Biography: Patrizia De Vito is a PR consultant. She has been working with the Italian Association of Confectionery Industries for eighteen years, particularly on the Health and Nutrition dossiers.

Barbara Gallani

"Salt reduction strategy in practice"

Biography: Barbara Gallani is the Head of the Biscuit, Cake, Chocolate and Confectionery Sector (BCCC) of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and is responsible for a number of policy issues including food safety, residues and contaminants, nutrition, labelling, responsible marketing and trade.

Barbara graduated from the University of Pavia in Italy with a degree in physics and worked for the UK nuclear industry in radiation protection and dosimetry. She then joined the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) where she worked on nuclear discharges to the environment, organic chemical contaminants and also lead the FSA integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Team (IPPC). After a secondment to the European Commission (EC) working on legislation on dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs in food, she returned to the FSA to become part of the FSA Board secretariat. Before joining the BRC in London, Barbara worked in Brussels as Food Policy Advisor at the European Consumers Organisation (BEUC). Barbara then worked as Food Policy Executive at the British Retail Consortium (BRC) where she was responsible for food safety and emerging risks, GM issues, organic farming and consumer interests.

The Food and Drink Federation is the voice of the UK food and drink industry, the largest manufacturing sector in the country. FDF's membership comprises manufacturers of all sizes as well as trade associations and groups dealing with specific sectors of the industry. The UK food and drink industry directly employs 500,000 people, and as many as 1.2 million in ancillary services; it accounts for 15% of the UK's total manufacturing sector by value.

Anoesjka de Waard

"Cocoa flavanols & CocoaVia"

- Introduction into cocoa flavanols

- Scientific background on cocoa flavanol-related research and health benefits

- CocoaVia chocolate brand

Biography: Anoesjka de Waard has a Masters degree of Science in Food Science & Technology from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

Since 2006 she has held the post of Technical Brand Manager CocoaVia, R&D Mars Nutrition Health & Well-being. Before that, from 2001 to 2006 she was Material Science & Technology Senior Scientist for R&D Mars (The Netherlands)

Before joining Mars Netherlands, she had gained experience in Quality & Food Safety positions such as QA manager and a senior consultant.

Dr Janet P Lambert

The Place and Role of CAOBISCO Products in the diet in the European Union

Bibliography

Dr Janet Lambert an independent nutrition consultant who has worked on a variety of Global, European and UK projects. She is a Registered Public Health Nutritionist, a Registered Dietitian and is the director of Lambert Nutrition Consultancy Ltd. She started her career as a dietitian in the health service followed by 14 years as a lecturer in nutritional science at Robert Gordon’s Institute of Technology (now University) in Aberdeen. She then became the Senior Nutrition Adviser for the Meat and Livestock Commission in the UK after which, prior to setting up her own consultancy in 2001, she was the Mars Nutrition Manager for Europe.

Presentation

In 2005 Caobisco commissioned a survey to look at recorded intakes of biscuits, cakes, chocolate and sugar confectionery in countries of the European Union, the contribution they made to total energy intakes and the relationship between consumption and overall dietary quality and body weight. Some of the results of this survey will be presented.