Independent report

SACN annual report 2024: foreword, finance and biographies

Published 17 March 2025

Chair’s foreword

It is my pleasure to introduce the 24th annual report of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), which covers the work of the committee in 2024. This is my fifth report as chair of SACN since taking over the role in 2020.

SACN has continued to consider the evidence on processed foods and health and will publish an evidence update in 2025, following its 2023 position statement on processed foods and health.

Ultra processed foods was also one of the topics discussed by the Lord’s select committee inquiry on food, diet and obesity. I gave oral evidence to the select committee in April 2024 and SACN submitted written evidence to the select committee.

SACN member interests were discussed at the Lord’s select committee. As chair of SACN, I believe that the committee has a wide range of measures in place that seek to be open and transparent about any relations of SACN members with the food industry. I covered a broad range of issues in my evidence to the select committee. It is helpful to reiterate the following.

SACN has a role in risk assessment, not risk management, and it is for government to take SACN advice and consider implementation into policy.

SACN undertakes robust, transparent reviews of the evidence in line with the SACN framework for the evaluation of evidence (available on the SACN webpage). Conclusions represent the views of the whole SACN membership and are not unduly influenced by individual SACN members.

SACN provides government with high quality, robust and impartial advice. SACN members are highly respected leading experts in their fields.

Members are appointed in line with the government’s public appointments process, as outlined in the SACN code of practice (available on the SACN webpage). Members of SACN and its working groups are appointed as individuals in their own right to contribute to the work of the committee, not as representatives of their particular profession, employer or interest group.

SACN members have a duty to act in the public interest, in accordance with the code of practice for scientific advisory committees and to be independent and professionally impartial.

No members are directly employed by industry. Individual SACN members will, in some cases, have a relationship with industry, most commonly through receiving funding for research. Details of such relationships are published and are available on the SACN register of interests. If we consider that an individual member has too much of a conflict of interest on a particular topic, then I as chair, in consultation with the secretariat, will exclude that individual from participating in the SACN discussion on that topic.

Papers and minutes are published on the SACN webpage. Members of the public are invited to observe open sessions. More details on openness and transparency are available in SACN’s code of practice (available on the SACN webpage).

SACN takes the scrutiny of the House of Lords committee and the duty to act in the public interest seriously. As such, we are continuing to consider what more we can do with respect to declaring and managing interests.

In May 2024 SACN published a rapid review on vitamin D fortification, including a review of international vitamin D fortification practices and a review of the evidence on the efficacy of vitamin D2 and D3 in raising serum/plasma 25(OH)D concentration. SACN concluded that an appropriately designed and well-implemented vitamin D fortification policy has the potential to improve the vitamin D status of the UK population. The choice of which form of vitamin D (vitamin D2 or D3) to use for fortification would need to take account of different food consumption patterns across the UK. Although vitamin D3 may be more effective than vitamin D2, both forms prevent risk of vitamin D deficiency. SACN concluded that further consideration of a potential vitamin D fortification policy in the UK would require a modelling exercise to identify suitable foods and levels of fortification. SACN will continue to consider vitamin D in 2025, with work on requirements for dark skin population groups.

In July 2024 SACN published 2 draft reports for peer review:

• the SACN draft report Nutrition and maternal weight outcomes
• the joint SACN and Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment draft report Assessing the health benefits and risks of consuming plant-based drinks

We are grateful to interested parties for taking the time to submit detailed written comments on the draft reports. This will improve the final versions, which are due to be published in 2025.

The subgroup on the SACN Framework and Methods for Evidence Evaluation has also continued to review the current SACN framework and published an update to the SACN framework in October 2024, as well as providing methodological support to SACN, its Subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition (SMCN) and its various working groups.

In addition, SACN continued its consideration of the World Health Organization’s Guideline on non-sugar sweeteners and will publish a position statement in 2025.

SACN held a productive horizon scan meeting in October 2024, the papers for which are available on the SACN webpage. SACN agreed that its future work programme should include assessments on protein, iodine, wholegrain, iron bioavailability and omega-3 fatty acids. I look forward to progressing these activities in 2025 and beyond.

This year saw no change to the membership of SACN.

I would like to give special thanks to Professor Julie Lovegrove for providing much appreciated support as the deputy chair.

Finally, I would like to thank members of the main committee, its subgroups and working groups, and the secretariat for their commitment to the work of SACN in 2024.

Professor Ian Young, Chair

About the committee

The role of SACN is to provide independent scientific advice on and risk assessments of nutrition and related health issues. It advises the 4 UK health departments, and other government departments and agencies.

Members are appointed as independent scientific experts on the basis of their specific skills and knowledge. The committee also includes 2 lay members.

SACN is a committee of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and is supported in its work by a secretariat based in OHID.

The secretariat has scientific expertise that enables it to work closely with SACN members to draft risk assessments.

The SACN webpage contains further information about SACN, including:

• terms of reference
• code of practice
• framework for the evaluation of evidence
• details of subgroups and working groups
• detailed updates on the work of SACN and progress of its subgroups and working groups are detailed in SACN meeting papers
• a register of members’ interests - an updated version of the register is published shortly before each main SACN committee meeting (a snapshot of the register of interests at the end of 2024 is available separately in the SACN annual report 2024)
• SACN publications

Remuneration and committee finances

The amount paid to committee members for fees was increased on 1 October 2024, as outlined below.

Up until 30 September:

• members who chaired a meeting received a fee of £200 per full day meeting
• members not chairing received £160 per full day meeting
• chair and members who attended a meeting and/or provided comments before or after the meeting also received a reading fee of £40

From 1 October 2024:

• members who chaired a meeting received a fee of £400 per full day meeting
• members not chairing received £300 per full day meeting
• chair and members who were unable to attend a meeting and provided comments before or after the meeting also received a reading fee of £75

SACN members were also paid fees for non-SACN meetings if they were attending in their capacity as SACN members.

The cost of the committee fees and expenses for the calendar year 2024, excluding secretariat resources, was £57,593.69. Costs were met by DHSC.

SACN member biographies

Details of current SACN membership can be found on the SACN webpage. Biographies of members of SACN, its subgroups and working groups during 2024 are provided below:

Professor Ian Young (SACN chair)

Professor of Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and Consultant Chemical Pathologist at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. In addition, he is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Department of Health (Northern Ireland) and Director of Health and Social Care Research and Development for Northern Ireland. His main clinical and research interests are in lipid metabolism, carbohydrates and antioxidants, particularly in relation to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. He is an author of over 450 published research papers and is deputy editor of the journal Clinical Chemistry. He frequently speaks at national and international meetings on topics related to laboratory medicine. As well as chairing SACN, he is a member of the subgroup on SACN framework and methods for evidence evaluation.

Professor Julie Lovegrove (deputy chair)

Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of Reading, Director of the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition and the Deputy Director of the Institute for Cardiovascular and Metabolic Research (ICMR). Her main areas of research interest are the investigation of nutritional influences on cardiometabolic disease risk, including nutrient and gene interactions and personalised nutrition in different population groups. She has authored over 340 research publications. She chairs the University of Reading’s Research Ethics Committee. She is a Trustee for the Academy of Nutrition Sciences (from 2023). She is a member of Medical Research Council’s Populations and Systems Medical Board (from 2021). She was President of the Nutrition Society for UK and Ireland (2019 to 2023). She was Vice President of Association for Nutrition (AfN) (2016 to 2019) and Chair of the AfN Accreditation Committee (2011 to 2019). She was awarded a fellowship of the AfN (2013) and Royal Society of Biology (2024). She was also awarded the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) Prize (2022). She is the deputy chair of SACN and chairs the subgroup on SACN framework and methods for evidence evaluation.

Professor Jean Adams

Medical Research Council (MRC) Investigator and professor at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge. She is a public health researcher with particular interests in population-level influences on and interventions to improve dietary public health. She has formal training in medicine, epidemiology, public health, health psychology and science communication. She is a member of the DHSC Obesity Policy Research Unit’s advisory group and a member of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) Scientific Advisory Group.

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait

Professor of Human Nutrition at Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia. Her main research interests are mineral metabolism and micronutrient requirements, in particular iron, and she has over 300 peer-reviewed publications. She is currently chair of the UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee (UKNHCC) and a member of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP). Since September 2021, she represents SACN on ACNFP and the project board for the NDNS. She was elected a distinguished fellow of the American Society for Nutrition in 2024 and an Honorary Fellow of the UK Nutrition Society in 2021. She is also a member of SACN’s vitamin D working group.

Ms Gill Fine

An independent public health nutritionist with over 40 years’ experience gained from working in private, public and voluntary sector organisations in both executive and non-executive roles. From 2004 to 2010, she was Director of Consumer Choice and Dietary Health at the FSA and was responsible for the strategic direction and the delivery of the FSA’s Eating for Health and Choice programme. This wide remit comprised nutrition, genetically modified (GM) foods, supplements, organics, additives, novel foods, food standards and general food labelling. She had first-hand experience of a wide range of food and dietary policies and how they impact on public health. Since April 2010, she has been working as an independent consultant and has served as a trustee and a board member to several charities and government organisations including the British Nutrition Foundation, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s Beef and Lamb Sector Board and Diabetes UK. In September 2023 she was appointed trustee director at the Quadram Institute Bioscience. She also chairs SACN’s vitamin D fortification working group.

Dr Darren Greenwood

Senior lecturer in Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of Leeds. His research focuses on the development and application of statistical methods in nutrition science and perinatal epidemiology. His expertise includes meta-analysis of observational studies, pooling individual participant data across separate studies, and correcting for measurement error and incomplete data in nutrition epidemiology. Recent work includes applications to maternal and child nutrition, randomised controlled trials of colorectal cancer screening and intensive longitudinal modelling of long COVID symptoms. He has authored over 250 original peer-reviewed research articles. He is a member of the UKNHCC. He was previously director of the World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology. He is a regular statistical reviewer for a number of leading international journals. He is a member of the subgroup on SACN framework and methods for evidence evaluation, and SACN’s working groups on nutrition and maternal health and vitamin D.

Professor Paul Haggarty

Professor at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen. He is deputy lead on a multi-disciplinary, multi-centre UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Global Challenges Research Fund Action against stunting hub designed to reduce global undernutrition and stunting in children. His research is concerned with the dietary and social determinants of health, transgenerational effects, the influence of early life, and the interaction between nutrition and the human genome. He works on epigenetics and nutritional metabolism, primarily in large population-based cohorts in the UK and Internationally. He also works on novel methods to monitor food provenance and the human food chain using epigenetic and other technologies. He represents SACN on the FSA Committee on Toxicity (COT). His research is funded by Scottish Government and UKRI. He is a member of SACN’s working groups on nutrition and maternal health and vitamin D.

Professor Mairead Kiely

Professor in Nutrition, School of Food and Nutritional Sciences at University College Cork, Ireland. Mairead is co-director of the Cork Centre for Vitamin D and Nutrition Research. She also leads the nutrition research platform at the Irish Centre for Maternal and Child Health Research (INFANT). Her research is focussed on diet, micronutrients and health across the life course. She publishes her work widely in scientific and medical literature. She leads a number of collaborative research projects predominantly funded by Irish and European funding agencies. She was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 2022 on the basis of excellence in nutrition science. She is an AfN registered nutrition scientist. She is a member of SACN’s SMCN subgroup and the working groups on nutrition and maternal health and vitamin D.

Mr Harry McDermott

Lay member Harry McDermott is a business advisor, angel investor and non-executive director (NED). He is an entrepreneur with over 35 years of international business experience. He has 15 years of experience as an executive board member and 5 years as an NED. He has served on the executive committee of a publicly listed firm, as well as 2 small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) advisory boards. He currently holds 2 NED positions in venture capital-backed tech companies (with an additional role as Remuneration Committee Chair). In addition to an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering and a postgraduate Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, he has recently acquired qualifications in astrophysics, astronomy and planetary science.

Professor Susan Lanham-New

Professor of Human Nutrition and Head of the Discipline of Nutrition, Exercise, Chronobiology and Sleep at the University of Surrey. She is a registered nutritionist on the AfN Register and an AfN Fellow. Her research focuses on nutrition and bone health with a particular emphasis on vitamin D. She has won a number of awards including the Nutrition Society Silver Medal, the 2018 BNF Prize, the University Surrey Leader of the Year Award (2019) and the 2021 Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow Medal. She is editor of the Textbook on Nutritional Aspects of Bone Health and editor-in-chief of the Nutrition Society Textbook Series. She has been a member of the Nutrition Forum for the Royal Osteoporosis Society for more than 30 years. She is a trustee of the BNF and was honorary secretary for the Nutrition Society 2016 to 2022. She served on the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) committee for setting the tolerable upper limit for vitamin D (2020 to 2023). She led an application for nutrition and food sciences at Surrey that won the 2017 to 2018 Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education. She contributes to UK and EU grant panels. Her research is funded by UKRI, BBSRC, MRC, the Ministry of Defence and medical charities. She has published more than 230 scientific peer reviewed papers. She is a member of the SACN working groups on nutrition and maternal health, vitamin D and plant-based drinks.

Dr David Mela

Dr Mela is a SACN member with technical industry expertise. He is an independent advisor and consultant in nutrition since retiring in 2019 from his role as a senior scientist at Unilever Research and Development, which followed an academic research career in the USA and UK. He has published over 100 professional papers, mainly in the biological and behavioural aspects of food choice, eating behaviour and energy balance, ranging from consumer research through energy metabolism. He is a registered nutritionist and fellow of the Association for Nutrition. He is a member of the subgroup on SACN framework and methods for evidence evaluation.

Professor Ken Ong

MRC Investigator and Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology at the MRC Epidemiology Unit and Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge. His research interests are on the life course determinants of obesity, type 2 diabetes and related disorders, and the translation of these findings to early life interventions. He is also an honorary consultant paediatric endocrinologist and clinical lead for childhood obesity at the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. He also represents SACN on the FSA COT and the Infant Food Survey Project Board. He chairs the SMCN and is a member of the subgroup on SACN framework and methods for evidence evaluation and the joint SACN and COT working group on plant-based drinks.

Professor Lucilla Poston CBE

Professor of Maternal and Fetal Health, Department of Women and Children’s Health in the School of Life Course and Population Sciences at King’s College London. Her research focuses on the consequence of exposures in utero for lifelong health of the child, particularly in relation to maternal nutritional status, obesity and gestational diabetes. Her approach involves randomised trials of lifestyle interventions in pregnancy. She also leads studies of maternal and child health in a longitudinal population cohort. She serves as president of the International Society for the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. She is a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and is a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator (emeritus). She was awarded the honour of CBE in 2017 for her services to women’s health. She is a member of SMCN and SACN’s working groups on nutrition and maternal health and vitamin D.

Professor Siân Robinson

Emeritus Professor of Lifecourse and Lifestyle at Newcastle University. She is a nutritional epidemiologist, with a background in population life course studies. She previously worked on a number of national and international birth cohorts. Her main research interests are in life course influences of diet and lifestyle on health in later life, with a particular focus on inequalities in health in older age, and translational research to inform preventive and treatment strategies. She is a member of SMCN and SACN’s nutrition and maternal health working group.

Dr Stella Walsh

Experienced lay member who has served on several government and industry committees and has responded to consultations on behalf of consumers. She was a member and previous secretary of the National Consumer Federation (NCF). She has a long-standing interest in food, nutrition and health. She has been a consumer member on the Institute of Grocery Distributors and on other FSA and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) committees. Until 2015, she was also a consumer member on the Veterinary Residues Committee. She is a member of SMCN and SACN’s working groups on nutrition and maternal health and vitamin D.

Professor Kevin Whelan

Professor of Dietetics and Head of Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London. He has an extensive research portfolio in relation to fibre, prebiotics, fermentable carbohydrates, processed foods and food additives, on which he has published over 230 journal articles. He has served 8 years on the NIHR lectureships grants panel. He was previously a member of the BNF Council and is currently a member of the BNF Advisory Committee for the BNF. He is a founding trustee of the Academy of Nutrition. He was a member of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Europe Expert Panel on Prebiotics for 2 years between 2008 to 2010. He is a registered dietitian and a member of the Nutrition Society.

Professor Charlotte Wright

Prof Wright is honorary senior research fellow at Glasgow University. She was previously Professor of Community Child Health at Glasgow University and honorary consultant paediatrician at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. She trained as a clinician and as an epidemiologist. Her interests are in understanding and addressing the causes of undernutrition in childhood, promoting healthy childhood nutrition and improving the assessment of growth and body composition and eating behaviour. She headed the group that designed new UK growth charts and has a longstanding interest in growth screening. In her clinical role, she ran a specialist feeding clinic and has been involved in a range of public health nutrition issues, particularly the promotion of breastfeeding. She has published 128 peer reviewed articles as well as book chapters and editorials. She is a member of SMCN.

Biographies for people who are not SACN members

Subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition

Dr Robert Boyle

Clinical Reader in Paediatric Allergy, Faculty of Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London. He is also a member of the editorial board at the evidence synthesis charity Cochrane. His clinical training is in paediatric allergy and his research aims to develop interventions for the prevention of allergic conditions such as eczema and food allergy. He has expertise in evidence synthesis and critical appraisal, and his group at Imperial have undertaken evidence syntheses for the UK FSA which influenced infant feeding guidance in the UK and internationally. He is a member of UKNHCC and joint editor in chief of the UK journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy.

Professor Marion Hetherington

Professor Emeritus in Biopsychology, School of Psychology, University of Leeds and Affiliate Professor, Department of Nutritional Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University. Former Thomas Ward Endowed Chair in Psychology. First appointed to a chair in Biopsychology in 2001 at the University of Liverpool - with specialist interests in infant feeding and the psychology of eating behaviour. Currently editor in chief for the journal Appetite. Past president of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB). Recent research has focussed on responsive feeding in infancy and in developing materials for interventions to support parents to recognise and respond to infant hunger, appetite and satiety cues.

Professor Sophie Moore

Professor of Global Women and Children’s Health, Department of Women and Children’s Health, King’s College London. Her current research focuses on mechanisms through which maternal, infant and childhood nutrition influence infant development and life-course health. Much of her current research is based at The Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia (MRCG) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at MRCG and an Honorary Associate Professor at LSHTM. She currently holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship focused on micronutrient interventions to improve infant neurocognitive development and growth in early infancy. She is also a member of the vitamin D working group.

Professor Paula Moynihan

Adjunct Professor, Adelaide Dental School, University of Adelaide, Australia. She is a registered nutritionist (public health) and registered dietitian (UK). For over thirty years, her research has focused on the interrelationship between nutrition and oral health. She was previously director of the Centre for Oral Health Research at Newcastle University (2013 to 2019). Between 2002 and 2019, she was director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre in Nutrition and Oral Health. She has served as an expert advisor on nutrition and oral health to the WHO for over 20 years, including advisor to the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (NUGAG) Sub-Panel on Diet and Health. She was a member of the EFSA working group on added sugars (2017 to 2021). She was recipient of the Nutrition Society Silver Medal in 2004. She received the International Association for Dental Research Distinguished Scientist Award in 2010 (Geriatric Oral Health). She received the American Society for Nutrition Roland Weinsier Award for Excellence in Medical Dental Education in 2023. She has over 140 peer reviewed publications and has served on several editorial or advisory boards including the Journal of Dental Research, Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology and Gerodontology. Paula has been a co-opted member of SACN since May 2023.

Professor Ann Prentice CBE

Former programme Leader of the MRC Nutrition and Bone Health (NBH) Research Group, Cambridge and head of the Calcium, Vitamin D and Bone Health research team at MRC Gambia. She was director of the MRC Elsie Widdowson Laboratory, Cambridge from 1998 to 2018. She is currently hosted by the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge as an honorary senior visiting fellow, where previously she was appointed Honorary Professor of Global Nutrition and Health. Her main research interests are nutritional aspects of bone health, rickets and osteoporosis, dietary requirements for human growth, pregnancy and lactation and old age, with particular reference to micronutrients. She has published extensive peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and reports. She was president of the Nutrition Society (from 2004 to 2007). She has also served on a number of national and international advisory committees, including the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy (COMA)’s Subgroup on Nutrition and Bone Health. She is an honorary professor of the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and Shenyang Medical College, People’s Republic of China, and an honorary doctor of the University of Surrey. She is also an honorary senior visiting fellow at the University of Cambridge and an honorary senior research fellow of the MRCG at the LSHTM. She is an honorary fellow of the Nutrition Society, the Association for Nutrition, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the International Union of Nutritional Sciences. She is an elected fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of Biology. She was appointed OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2006 and CBE in the New Year Honours List 2024. Professor Prentice was a member of SACN from 2001 to 2010 and then chair of SACN until 2020. As well as being on SMCN she is chair of SACN’s working group on nutrition and maternal health.

Subgroup on the SACN Framework and Methods for Evidence Evaluation

Dr Russell de Souza

Associate Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact and Global Health at McMaster University. He is a registered dietitian, having practiced in the areas of diabetes, cardiology and nephrology. Dr de Souza teaches epidemiology, and his academic work focuses on the nutritional determinants of chronic disease through the lifespan. He has published more than 80 systematic reviews (SRs) and/or meta-analyses largely related to diet and cardiometabolic risk. He has served as an external resource person, completing SRs for the WHO’s Nutrition Guidelines Advisory Group and advised Health Canada as a member of the Nutrition Science Advisory Committee. He has taught courses in epidemiology and nutrition. He is also involved in randomised trials, observational and qualitative studies to understand effective ways to reduce risk in traditionally underserved populations, including South Asian immigrants and indigenous peoples. He received the Canadian Nutrition Society’s Young Investigator Award for Outstanding Research in 2023.

Nutrition and maternal health working group

Professor Annie Anderson

Emeritus Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the School of Medicine, University of Dundee. Her main research interests are on theory based, behaviourally focused dietary and obesity (population and individual) interventions. She has a special interest in cancer prevention, maternal nutrition and food policy. She was a member of SACN between 2001 and 2011. She has participated as an expert advisor for the WHO International Agency for Research on Cancer, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), DHSC, FSA and Scottish Government advisory committees. She was president of the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine during 2019 to 2021, elected fellow of the College of Physicians (Edinburgh) and fellow of the Royal Society Edinburgh in 2020.

Professor Basma Ellahi

Prof Ellahi is Professor of Public Health Nutrition and Associate Dean of Research and Innovation, Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Chester. She is a public health nutritionist with experience in senior management, teaching and research. She is a fellow of the higher education academy in the UK. She is a registered nutritionist with AfN in the UK. She is also a member of the Nutrition Society of UK and Ireland as well as both the African and Pakistani nutrition societies. She is a member of the editorial board of the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society. She recognises the importance of good quality education for nutritionists and has been involved in capacity building workshops on the African and Asian subcontinent. Her research interests focus on the health and wellbeing of diverse minority communities and in particular south Asians using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Joint SACN and COT working group on plant-based drinks

Professor Mike Kelly

Senior visiting fellow in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge and a member of St John’s College, Cambridge. Between 2005 and 2014 he was the director of the Centre for Public Health at NICE, where he led the teams producing public health guidelines. He has advised the House of Commons Health Committee and been a witness before parliamentary committees on a number of occasions. He has chaired committees for the MRC, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the FSA, Public Health England (PHE) and OHID. From 2005 to 2007 he directed the methodology work stream for the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. He has a continuing interest in health inequalities and is pursuing a programme of research in Cambridge on this topic. His other research interests include the methods and philosophy of evidence-based medicine, prevention of heart disease, health related behaviour change, the causes of non-communicable disease, end of life care, dental public health, transport and health, and the sociology of chronic illness.

Professor Alan Boobis OBE

Professor Emeritus of Toxicology in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial College London. He has published around 250 original research papers. For several years he served as an editor-in-chief of Food and Chemical Toxicology. He has chaired the FSA COT since 2015. He also serves on the FSA Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants. He chairs the WHO Study Group on Tobacco Product Regulation (TobReg). He also chairs the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) (veterinary residues) and Joint FAO and WHO Expert Meeting on Pesticides Residues (JMPR). He has previously served on the Health and Safety Executive Advisory Committee on Pesticides, the FSA Committee on Carcinogenicity, and the EFSA Panels on Contaminants in the Food Chain and on Plant Protection Products. He is a past chair of the ILSI board of trustees and is a member of the board of directors of ILSI Europe. Among his awards are fellowship of the British Pharmacological Society, honorary membership and Merit Award of Eurotox, John Barnes Prize Lectureship and honorary fellowship of the British Toxicology Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry Toxicology Award and the Arnold J Lehman Award from the Society of Toxicology. He received an OBE in 2003 for his work on the risk assessment of pesticides.

Dr Caroline Harris

Principal scientist in the Centre for Chemical Regulation and Food Safety, Exponent International Ltd. She specialises in exposure and the assessment of consumer risk from chemicals in food. She has a particular interest in agrochemicals and environmental contaminants, child and infant exposure and models for estimating exposure. She previously worked in the UK’s Pesticides Safety Directorate, with her latter posts being Head of Pesticide Chemistry and Manager of the Human Health Group. During this time, she developed in-depth background knowledge of pesticides science and regulation, including physical and chemical properties, methods of analysis, metabolism, residues and consumer risk assessment. She was previously a member of the Joint FAO and WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues. She is a current member of the Advisory Committee on Crop Protection Chemistry for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). She was a member of FSA COT and is currently a member of the FSA Expert Committee on Pesticides (ECP).

Professor Tim Key

Professor of Epidemiology, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford. He has worked as a cancer epidemiologist at the University of Oxford since 1985. His main interests are the roles of diet and hormones in the aetiology of cancer, particularly cancers of the breast, prostate and colon, and the health status of vegetarians and vegans. He is principal investigator of the Oxford cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). He also co-ordinates the Endogenous Hormones and Breast Cancer Collaborative Group. He was a member of SACN between 2001 and 2018.

Professor Gunter Kuhnle

Professor of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Reading. His research interest is the development of objective measures of exposure and dietary intake using a range of different analytical techniques. Further interests are the link between diet and health, in particular the health effect of polyphenols and the link between meat and cancer. Professor Kunle is a member of FSA COT.

Ms Rachael Wall

Currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Reading on the ‘Consumption of milk and plant-based dairy alternatives: implications for nutrition, household expenditure and environmental sustainability’. She was previously employed by OHID working in the Nutrition, Evidence, Surveys and Translation (NEST) division where she provided scientific secretariat support to SACN as a member of the Dietary Surveys and Food Composition. Prior to joining OHID, she worked as a freelance consultant for First Steps Nutrition Trust where she researched and co-authored papers on the role of animal milk and plant-based alternatives in the diets of children one to 4 years. Rachael is a registered associate nutritionist with the Association for Nutrition.