The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced the appointment of a chair and seven members to its new Science Council.
The council will provide expert and independent advice to the FSA on how it uses science to underpin its work.
Professor Sandy Thomas will chair the council. Professor Thomas is director of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition and an honorary professor at the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex.
She has experience of leading, convening and generating cross-disciplinary analysis and strategic science to inform policy; and was head of the UK Government’s Foresight Programme from 2007 to 2015.
The seven newly appointed members of the Council are: Professor Laura Green, Professor John O’Brien, Professor Sarah O’Brien, Mr Mark Rolfe, Dr Paul Turner, Professor Patrick Wolfe and Professor Mark Woolhouse.
Rolfe has also been appointed to the role of Member, bringing insights on the public’s perspectives.
FSA Chair Heather Hancock said: “Science is at the heart of the FSA’s work to protect public health and for people to have food they can trust.
“We have created our new Science Council to be confident that we are using robust and rigorous science to identify emerging risk, to find the right solutions to public health concerns, and so that our future priorities in food safety and standards are informed by the best science available.
"I am delighted that Sandy Thomas has agreed to chair the council, bringing her outstanding track record in foresight and science strategy, and that she will be joined by such distinguished colleagues with national and international standing.”
The council will supersede the FSA’s existing General Advisory Committee on Science (GACS). The GACS will be formally dissolved as of 31st March 2017.
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