Short biography

Dr Caroline Merten, a veterinarian specialised in food sciences, currently holds a position as Team Leader of the Data Gateway & Outreach team in the Integrated Data unit at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy. Her team is coordinating the European wide cross sectorial data collections that serve EFSA’s risk assessment needs. She is overseeing an ongoing research project on Evaluating the impact on human and animal gut microbiomes by potential modulators under EFSA’s remit. In her previous position with EFSA as a scientific officer in the Scientific Committee and Emerging risk unit she was coordinating all uncertainty assessment related methodological work, EFSA’s European Emerging Risk Exchange Network and oversaw multiple methodological research projects to identify emerging risks in the remit of EFSA. Before joining EFSA she has worked in the Emergency Prevention System for food safety group at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in Rome. Her responsibilities included planning and managing programs to strengthening prevention and response to food safety emergencies in developing countries, mainly in Africa and Asia and served as the FAO secretariat for the FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN). In her past positions she worked as an exposure assessor in the Data Collection and Monitoring unit at EFSA and coordinated development programs to improve the food safety in West African countries.