Dr Karen McGillicuddy is a senior researcher at Farrelly Mitchell and an expert in food systems and food safety. She has over 14 years’ experience in food safety regulatory affairs. She holds a PhD in Industrial Microbiology (Thesis title: The microbial degradation of chlorophenols) and a BSc in Industrial Microbiology. Karen is dedicated to improving quality and reliability through review, analysis and reform.
Karen has experience in considering the impact of policy and regulation, developing technical guidance, preparing tailored materials for capacity building, and carrying out stakeholder consultations in the areas of food safety and food systems. Karen has worked on projects for European and International institutions such as DG REFORM, UNIDO and the World Bank. Her in-depth regulatory knowledge allows her to carry out in-depth analysis of policy and regulatory requirements and develop processes or recommendations to ensure their effective implementation.
Prior to Farrelly Mitchell, Karen worked for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), ensuring effective co-ordination of the food regulatory agencies in Ireland, evaluating the impact of new legislation, developing processes to implement regulatory requirements, organising chemical and microbiological surveillance programmes, participating in internal audits for ISO 9001 accreditation, audits of food regulatory agencies in Ireland by FSAI and responding to audits by the European Commission.
Karens areas of expertise include microbiology; EU food regulations and policy landscape; national and international agriculture and food standards; and process optimisation. Karen has excellent communication skills, both at the research stage for garnering information on new topics and at the later stage in a project when clearly presenting findings and recommendations.
