Member profile

Professor Hans Verhagen

Last updated: 03 November 2022

Professor Verhagen is a Food Safety and Nutrition consultant following his retirement from EFSA in 2020 where he was the Head of the Risk Assessment and Scientific Assistance Department as well as a Senior Scientific Officer. He is an alumnus of Universities of Nijmegen (Netherlands) and Paris studying chemistry, as well as having a PhD in food toxicology from the University of Maastricht (Netherlands). He has a wide range of experience having worked at the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute (Netherlands), Unilever (Netherlands), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM; Netherlands).

He has served on many editorial boards of scientific journals. He has been editor-in-chief of “Food & Chemical Toxicology” and the “European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety”.

Professor Verhagen is a board-certified toxicologist and nutritionist. He has served as a member of the EFSA-NDA panel for 9 years, working on novel foods and health claims. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Ulster and The Technical University of Denmark. He has a large number of publications on toxicology, food safety and nutrition.

Register of Interests

In line with FSA policy and established good practice for accessing external expertise, Scientific Advisory Committee members are required to declare any personal or non-personal interests which represent a real or potential conflict in respect of general or specific aspects of work undertaken. Interests will be managed in accordance with the FSA’s policy and guidance. 

If members have interests not specified in these notes, but which they believe could be regarded as influencing their advice or other work for FSA, they should declare them. However, members are not under any obligation to search out interests of which they might reasonably not be aware. For example, either through being unaware of all the interests of family members, or of not being aware of links between one company and another. 

Current Interests

Personal

Category of Interest

Organisation/Body & Nature of Interest

Owner and founder / consultant

Food Safety & Nutrition Consultancy (1 Nov 2020 to date); https://www.fsnconsultancy.nl  

Other fee-paid work from relevant organisations, consultancies

Visiting professor, Technical University of Denmark (2021 to date)

Scientific Advisory Board - Cosun Nutrition Center (The Netherlands).(2022 to date)

Other personal interests

Visiting Professor, University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland (2009 to date)

Non-Personal Interests

Category of Interest

Organisation/Body & Nature of Interest (period)

Indirect financial or non-financial support from relevant organisations

Dutch Academy of Nutritional Sciences, member

Dutch Society for Toxicology, member

European Environmental Mutagen Society, member

Global Harmonization Initiative, member

Fellowships

Technical University of Denmark, visiting professor

Other public appointments

 

PUM (Netherlands Senior Experts), The Hague, The Netherlands, volunteer scientific expert

Other non-personal interests

  1. International Society of Exposure Sciences, co-author
  2. member of editorial boards of scientific journals; currently:
  • Food and Chemical Toxicology
  • European Journal of Nutrition & Food Safety
  • Voeding Nu
  • Foods
  • Food Safety - The Official Journal of Food Safety Commission of Japan

Historic Interests

Personal

Category of Interest

Organisation/Body & Nature of Interest (period)

 

Direct employment

European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy; Head of Department / Senior Scientific Officer (2015-2020)

National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands; Head "Centre for Nutrition and Health"/Senior Scientific Adviser (2005-2015)

European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy; member NDA Panel (2006-2015)

Lecturer at Maastricht University (2009-2015)

Unilever Research Vlaardingen, The Netherlands; Head, Bioanalysis & Biomarkers/Safety Interface/ Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager (2000-2005)

TNO Nu­trition and Food Re­search Insti­tute, Zeist, The Ne­ther­lands; Head, "Food and Non-Food Analy­sis Department"/ Groupleader "Regulatory Genotoxicology and Antimutagenesis" (1990-1999)

Uni­versi­ty of Maastricht, The Nether­lands; Assistant professor in Biological Health Sciences/ PhD-student and teaching in Biological Health Sciences (1985-1990)

University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands; PhD-student (1983-1985)

Other personal interests

European Human Biomonitoring Initiative (HBM4EU); Member Governing Board and Policy Board (2016-2020)

Max Rubner Institute, Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food, Karlsruhe, Germany; member scientific advisory board (vice chair) (2014-2015)

Ik Kies Bewust Foundation; member of scientific committee that evaluates the front of pack logo (2011-2015)

European Journal of Nutrition and Food Safety (2011-2015); Editor in Chief

Graduate School VLAG; member of Governing Board (2009-2015)

Food and Chemical Toxicology (1999-2004); Editor in Chief