Hear direct insights from the experts on food regulation reform plus more. This is the food regulation event of the year. Hear directly from FSANZ’s CEO and senior leaders as they unpack sweeping reforms—from genetically modified and cell-cultured foods to new standards for eggs and sugar claims, and energy labelling. Dive into the regulatory grey zone between food and therapeutic goods, gain a comprehensive understanding of the 2026 merger regime, and learn how to navigate greenwashing risks and ESG disclosure obligations and their implications for the food industry. Explore the latest developments in food advertising, packaging and food wastage law reform. With regulators and top legal minds sharing their experience and expertise across so many areas of food regulation and business, this program delivers unmatched access to the latest developments and practical strategies you need now.

 

Presenters

Jennifer Hughes, Partner, Beatty Hughes & Associates
Jennifer has over 25 years’ experience in environment and planning law, assisting industry, developers and government to manage environment incidents and on-going compliance, obtain development consents and environmental licences and acquire and divest industrial and contaminated land. Jennifer is widely recognised as a leading advisor to the waste industry due to her in-depth understanding of issues unique to that sector and is a member of the Board of the Australian Organics Recycling Association Limited. Jennifer is ranked in several directories as a leading environmental lawyer.

Dr Matthew O’Mullane, General Manager, Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Dr Matt O’Mullane is the General Manager of the Food Safety Branch at Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) and has worked across the Australian government for 25 years, including over 10 years at FSANZ. He has extensive experience in human health risk analysis and the regulation of food, chemicals, pesticides, veterinary medicines, and GMOs. Matt was a toxicological adviser to the World Health Organisation (2011-2017), the Australian Delegation Leader to the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Foods (2018-2022), chaired FSANZ’s Advisory Committee on Novel Foods (2017-2022) and was secretary of the Gene Technology Technical Advisory Committee (2022-2024). Prior to joining government, he was a research scientist in the university and private sectors and led innovations in cancer drug development and disease detection and undertook research in human virology and plant biochemistry. Matt has a first-class honours degree in virology and a PhD in cancer cell biology both from the University of Wollongong.

Dr Teresa Nicoletti, Partner, Mills Oakley
Dr Teresa Nicoletti is a Partner in Mills Oakley's Intellectual Property team, based in Sydney. Teresa is both a lawyer and scientist with more than 20 years' experience in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries in Australia and New Zealand. She has also worked across many other product-related industries, including foods, cosmetics, veterinary pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals and industrial chemicals. Teresa is an experienced negotiator and regularly liaises with regulatory authorities and government administrators on behalf of her clients, including the Therapeutic Goods Administration, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Branch, the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority and state food and health authorities. Teresa is actively involved in industry, and is regularly invited to speak at industry conferences and deliver seminars and workshops.

Sar Katdare, Partner, Johnson Winter Slattery
Sar has over 25 years' experience as a “trusted advisor” to major multinational and ASX-listed companies on cartels, mergers, access to infrastructure issues and day-to-day competition and consumer law matters. Sar is the head of our national Competition & Antitrust team. He is a preeminent lawyer who has acted for immunity applicants and defendants in landmark criminal and civil cartel cases, has defended clients in relation to misuse of market power, exclusive dealing, concerted practices and consumer law investigations and prosecutions, and is a leading expert on access and regulatory matters. Sar has successfully advised clients on obtaining ACCC clearance for significant transactions, including for Are Media, Pepsi, Qantas, Ruralco, Spotify, Unilever, Qantas and Yahoo!. He is a strategic advisor on complex competition and regulatory matters in the FMCG, gas and rail sectors.

Odette Gourley, Partner, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Odette Gourley is a senior partner and market leading lawyer in intellectual property law and related areas. In the course of her substantial career, Odette has been in leading trade mark and patent cases including in the High Court: Gallo Barefoot (trade marks), Hassle v Alphapharm (patents) and Peters Ice Cream (restraint of trade); in the Federal Court: AstraZeneca (doctor advertising of drugs); Winnebago (user principle damages for IP infringement), Johnsons Holiday Skin (substantiation of advertising claims by consumer research), Roche (scheduling scheme for therapeutic products), Novo v Cipla and Otsuka v Sun Pharma (patent term extensions). Odette has extensive industry knowledge including in relation to life sciences and pharma, food and beverages, consumer products and a range of other regulated industries. With her knowledge and experience, Odette advises and litigates across the full range of intellectual property law and associated areas including regulatory law (including privacy), administrative law, and competition and consumer law.

Keith Chessell, AIP Education Team, Australian Institute of Packaging
Keith Chessell FAIP has over 46 years of experience within the Food, Beverage & Confectionery industry (Cottee’s, Schweppes, Pepsi, Cadbury, Kraft/Mondelez) with the innovation and development of new products and the relaunch of existing products and packaging.  In recent years his focus has been on sustainable packaging design and assisting the AIP & WPO with Save Food initiatives and training support for Educational institutions.  Judging packaging design awards has been a great interest over the past 12 years and he has combined this with his ‘Sustainable Packaging Design consultancy.  Keith is on the DCCEEW National Packaging Design Standards working group, an AIP representative on the APCO Materials Stewardship Committees, Standards Australia, and was on the APCO Board. Keith is a Fellow and Life Member of the AIP, a Lifetime Achievement Award winner for the WPO, and is an invaluable member of the AIP Education Team.

Dr Sandra Cuthbert, Chief Executive Officer,Food Standards Australia New Zealand
Dr Sandra Cuthbert was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Food Standards Australia New Zealand on 31 March 2022. Sandra has extensive leadership, policy, corporate governance and stakeholder engagement experience across the public and private sectors. She has held senior roles within the Australian Government departments of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Finance, and Agriculture, as well as Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). Prior to her time in the public service Sandra worked as a veterinarian in private practice. Sandra has post graduate qualifications in veterinary medicine and surgery, law, and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Susan Goodman, Partner, Gadens
Susan has over 22 years of experience representing clients in the State and Federal Courts in Australia, including the High Court of Australia, as well as acting in regulatory investigations. She specialises in achieving commercial outcomes for her clients. Susan advises and represents government departments and agencies, companies and company directors, professional service firms and individuals in a wide range of commercial and regulatory disputes. She specialises large complex commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution, including class actions. Susan has, over many years acted in litigation and regulatory investigations for government departments, including the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Department of Home Affairs and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). This work has involved regulatory matters, investigations and prosecutions, judicial review and tort matters including claims for misfeasance in public office and defamation, as well as negligence and nuisance. Susan has extensive experience acting for professional service firms and for and against insolvency practitioners, including liquidators and receivers, in complex litigation arising out of some of the largest corporate failures in Australia. As well as contested litigation, Susan is experienced in acting in regulatory investigations and prosecutions for both regulators and defendants. Susan regularly represents her clients in examinations by regulators and liquidators. She is experienced in seeking judicial advice and court approval for actions by insolvency practitioners and in relation to settlement of proceedings. The matters which Susan regularly runs include complex trust issues, misleading and deceptive conduct, breaches of the Corporations Act and the ASIC Act, breach of directors’ duties, auditors’ negligence, breach of contract and various torts.

Alison Jones, Special Counsel, Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Alison is a Special Counsel at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Australia’s leading independent law firm and practises in IP, competition and consumer law, entertainment law and related areas. Alison has expertise across a broad range of areas, including IP protection and enforcement, commercialisation (including licensing, distribution and sponsorship), advertising collateral, complaints and disputes, industry ethics, competition and consumer law, anti-bribery, anti-counterfeiting, confidential information, cross-border transactions, contract drafting and due diligence. She advises various leading companies on a range of regulatory issues including food law, cosmetics, life sciences and therapeutic goods regulation, trade, customs, administrative action, investigations, product liability and recalls, privacy and data protection. Alison has undertaken various client secondments in global companies at General Counsel level including a US headquartered pharmaceutical and life sciences company, a leading multinational FMCG company and a major global interactive marketing services company. She is a committee member of the IP Society of Australia and New Zealand (NSW), a member of the International Association for the Protection Intellectual Property (AIPPI) and the Australian and New Zealand College of Notaries, and is listed on the Register of Lawyers of the Ad Standards Industry Jury. Alison has also completed the Leadership Development Program through the NUS Business School Executive Education in Singapore.

Clare Nass, Senior Legal Counsel, Associated British Foods
Clare is a Senior Legal Counsel with one of Australia’s biggest food and beverage companies, George Weston Foods which is a subsidiary of the UK listed company, Associated British Foods. The group includes well known brands such as Tip Top, Twinings, DON, Pataks, Ryvita, Yumi’s, among many others. Clare has been working in FMCG for the last 10 years and prior to that honed her legal skills working in house at a large advertising company. Her current role covers both commercial advice in Australia and New Zealand as well as supporting the groups business across the Asia Pacific region on matters relating to intellectual property and information technology.


Veronica Volfneuk, Legal & Regulatory Counsel, Vow
Veronica Volfneuk is Legal and Regulatory Counsel at Vow, Australia’s leading cell-cultured meat company. In her role, Veronica provides strategic legal and commercial advice across intellectual property, procurement, product development, and corporate law. She also supports the company’s work with food regulators globally, assisting with submissions and compliance processes. Most recently, she contributed to Vow’s historic milestone: securing approval from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) to sell cultured meat in Australia, the first approval of its kind in the country. Before joining Vow, Veronica worked as in-house legal counsel in the charity sector and began her career at a large commercial law firm. Her experience across diverse industries has equipped her with a unique perspective on the intersection of law, innovation, and emerging technologies in the food sector.

Katinka Day, National Advocacy and Policy Lead, OzHarvest
Katinka Day is a leading policy and advocacy specialist with extensive experience shaping food, health, and environmental regulation in Australia. Katinka has driven strategic government relations and political advocacy for major organisations, including WWF-Australia, CHOICE, and World Animal Protection. In her current role, Katinka leads OzHarvest’s advocacy to shape public policy and address the root causes of food waste and food insecurity in Australia. Katinka’s work has influenced landmark legislation and policy reforms, from advancing bans on single-use plastics to improving food labelling standards and promoting sustainable food systems. Katinka holds a Master of Business Administration from UTS and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney.

Professor Simon Lockrey, RMIT University
Professor Simon Lockrey from RMIT School of Design is the REDUCE Program Leader in End Food Waste CRC, a national $121 million research and development initiative aiming to halve food loss and waste by 2030. The domains in which Professor Lockrey has managed research include life cycle assessment, design innovation, green marketing, resource efficiency, food waste reduction and the circular economy, for companies including Chep, Visy, Nestlé, Lendlease, and Breville, as well as government departments and NFPs/ NGOs. As a result, he has generated millions of dollars of ‘industry facing’ research, creating global impact through policy changes, commercial outcomes, and media coverage. On practice, Professor Lockrey's professional design, engineering and management has crossed a large range of industries including consultancies, packaging, commercial interior furniture, electro-mechanical appliances, hardware, and gardening products. Since 2000 he has worked on over 100 commercial projects for organisations such as Cyclone, Schiavello, Dyson, Whirlpool, Sabco, Sorbent, Novatech Controls, Henkel, and Glowpear which has resulted in the generation of many billions of dollars in income and intellectual property (IP). At board level, Professor Lockrey is the Secretary of the International Sustainable Development Research Society, former Executive Director of Glowpear, former Vice President of Automotive Historians Australia, and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.