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STAKEHOLDER PANEL ON INFANT FORMULA AND
ADULT NUTRITIONALS (SPIFAN)
(AOAC/ISO COOPERATIVE)
Erik Konings, Nestlé
SPIFAN Working Group Chair, Folic Acid
Chair, ISO/TC 34/WG 14 – Vitamins, Carotenoids and Other Nutrients
Erik Konings was born in the Netherlands. After completing Secondary school in
1977, he studied higher professional laboratory education with majors in
analytical and clinical chemistry. After graduating in 1984, he started his
professional career at the then called Food Inspection Service in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
During 1989 to 1996 he was involved with the development of analytical methods for the analysis
of vitamins in food and food products.
In 1996 he started his PhD study “Dietary folates in human nutrition” in collaboration with the
departments of Human Biology and Epidemiology of Maastricht University.
During this study, which he completed in 2001, he obtained a MSc-degree in epidemiology. Since
1998 he was appointed as Senior Scientific Staff Officer at the department Research &
Development of the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA) in the Netherlands. He
was (co)author of more than 30 scientific publications.
In 1997 he became a member of the Methods Committee on Food Nutrition of AOAC International
and since 2001 he is convenor of a working group on vitamins & carotenoids of the European
Committee for Standardization (CEN). In September 2008 he started at the European Food Safety
Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy, for a secondment as Scientific Officer at the Data Collection and
Exposure Unit and from there accepted, in June 2009, a position as Project Manager at the Quality
and Safety Department of Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland. Per September 2010
he was appointed as Group Manager of the Method Management Group at the Quality and Safety
Department of Nestlé Research Centre in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Since 2009 he is member of the International Dairy Federation (IDF), Standing Committee
Analytical Methods for Additives and Contaminants, and participates in Codex Committee for
Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS) since 2010.