General

Members of the ACMSF

Last updated: 15 May 2024

ACMSF comprises an independent Chair and sixteen independent members.

The Committee members are:

Professor Bill Keevil (Chair)

Professor Bill Keevil is Professor of Environmental Healthcare, Head of the Microbiology Group, School of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton.

Dr Rohini Manuel

Dr Rohini Manuel is a Consultant Clinical Microbiologist at the Public Health Laboratory London, National Infection Service, UK Health Security Agency. 

Dr Wayne Anderson

Dr Wayne Anderson is Director of the Food Science and Standards Division at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. 

Dr Edward Fox

Dr Edward Fox is a Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University and has previously held a Newman Fellowship at University College Dublin’s Centre for Food Safety where his research examined food processing hygiene and food safety, and the role of microbial communities in influencing the colonisation of pathogenic bacteria in food processing environments.

Dr Jane Gibbens

Dr Jane Gibbens is a consultant veterinary epidemiologist with extensive experience in providing advice to enable veterinary policy making and development, and in the design, implementation and analysis of disease surveillance and control protocols. She formerly worked for Defra and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, most recently as Head of the Bovine TB Epidemiology Assessment Centre, and Head of the Epidemiology and Risk Group. Her focus has been on bovine tuberculosis, statutory diseases exotic to the UK and scanning veterinary surveillance.

Professor Francis Butler

Professor Francis Butler is currently a Professor in the School of Biosystems and Food Engineering at University College Dublin and a Principal Investigator in the UCD Centre for Food Safety. His main research area is in food safety with a particular focus on quantitative risk assessment /modelling of microbiological hazards in foods.

Mr Martin Briggs

Mr Martin Briggs is a feed industry expert with over 46 years’ experience in farm animal feeds. He has a degree in Applied Biology and is currently an independent feed industry consultant. He was previously  employed as a Technical Manager for GLW Feeds Ltd, a large multi-species compound feed manufacturer, with previous roles as Mill and Operations Managers.

Dr Nicol Janecko

Dr Nicol Janecko is an epidemiologist and microbiologist by training with a long-standing career focus on foodborne zoonotic pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. She is presently the Campylobacter in the food chain Career Track Group Leader at the Quadram Institute Bioscience, Norwich, UK.

Prof Linda Scobie

Professor Linda Scobie presently teaches Biomedical Science and Microbiology programmes at Glasgow Caledonian University. She leads a research group interested in viral zoonoses in the context of novel technologies.

Prof Cath Rees

Professor Cath Rees is a Professor of Microbiology in the School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham.

Dr Dragan Antic

Dr Dragan Antic is a Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health at the Institute of Infection, Veterinary and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool.

Prof Andrew Page

Prof Andrew Page is Director of Technical Innovation at Theiagen Genomics working with the US public health system. He is a computer scientist with a background in machine learning and microbial bioinformatics. He has previously worked in the Wellcome Sanger Institute on pathogen genomics and the Quadram Institute on food borne pathogens.

Dr Inaki Deza-Cruz

Dr Inaki Deza Cruz is a Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Public Health at the University of Edinburgh and a visiting lecturer at University of Surrey. With over 20 years of experience in the field, Dr Deza-Cruz has cultivated a rich and diverse background, having worked in academia, the private sector, and government organizations such as the FSA and the Animal and Plant Health Agency. His career has grown at the intersection of human and animal health, focusing on the two vital aspects of veterinary public health: epidemiology and food safety.

Dr Adri Bester

Dr Adri Bester is Senior Food Technologist in the School of Applied Science, London South Bank University, and a mentor and auditor for the Safe and Local Supplier Approval Accreditation.

Dr Roberto Vivancos

Dr Roberto Vivancos is a consultant in public health and medical epidemiologist working with the Field Services of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). He has over 15 years of experience working in Public Health in the fields of health protection and epidemiology. He has contributed to the investigation of numerous outbreaks of gastrointestinal infections and food related illness, from local to international level, working closely with local and national authorities, and regulatory agencies. He has been involved in several collaborative research projects focusing on the burden, epidemiology, and control of gastrointestinal infections. He is currently co-director of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Gastrointestinal Infections and has published widely on epidemiology and communicable disease control in peer reviewed scientific journal.

Mr Andrew MacLeod

Mr Andrew MacLeod has been an advocate and proponent of a scientific approach to OCs since his career began some 27 years ago and where he has entirely specialised in Food Control.

Prior to this Andy qualified with a BSc joint honours in Ecology and Human Biology, going on to take the BSc Environmental Health part time in Manchester and the Masters programme in Food Safety at Birmingham.  

A Chartered Scientist (Food Science & Technology), Andy was elected as a Fellow of the IFST for his work on Inspection technique and PCR based control of viruses in oysters. His referee was the Director of the FSA Scotland. He was entered on the IFST professional register as a Principal of Food Safety.

Andy has been a Lead Officer for 25 years where he is most active in the high-risk manufacturing sector. He has been Company Principal of the Food Standards Company for 18 years being contracted as a Course Director with Campden BRI, SEAFISH, the FSA, the FSS, the RSPH various LAs in the UK and overseas and private businesses. His specialises in the Advanced HACCP course in Food Manufacturing to the private and the public sector.

He was the author of and tutor on the FSA Enforcement Sanctions, Risk Assessment & Depuration courses. He is the principal developer and writer of OCV as well as the joint author of the FSS OCV course. He has just finished authoring the new FBOV/OCV for Food Authenticity Course.

Andrew has worked with SFELC on OCV since the beginning and chaired the OCV manual writing group. He has been involved in training in a public and private capacity for 29 years.

He acts as an Expert Witness in Scottish laws in relation to the epidemiology of food borne illness.

Ms Claire Tomaso

Ms Claire Tomaso is a Principal Environmental Health Officer managing the Food Safety Team within the London Borough of Enfield. She also lectures at Middlesex University in Environmental Health.