Dr. Arjen Gerssen
Arjen is program manager food contaminants at Wageningen Food Safety Research which is part of Wageningen University and Research. Within his research and monitoring program as well as both national and international adjacent research projects a wide variety of analytical challenges related to feed and food safety are tackled with mass spectrometric methods. For example, discovery of new unregulated toxicological relevant contaminants and toxins (i.e. PFAS’s, dioxin-like substances and algal toxins) in food by use of effect-based in vitro approaches in combination with mass spectrometry. Furthermore, for understanding the transfer or metabolization of these substances from the environment or feed to food mass spectrometry is the tool of choice. Finally, for official monitoring of regulated contaminants and toxins mass spectrometric methods are the golden standard. Our generated data is often used for risk assessment and for enforcement to contribute in safe and reliable food for everyone.