Helen Arrowsmith
Regulatory Affairs Manager and Allergens Specialist
Qualifications
- PhD: Impact of anthropogenic ionising radiation on soil microbial communities
- BSc: Agriculture and Food Sciences: Specialising in Food Microbiology
Latest publications
- International review of the literature and guidance on food allergen cleaning - Food Standards Agency
- Compliance with food additive legislation: how to check which additives are permitted in your food and drink products - Regulatory Guide
- Food allergens: practical risk analysis, testing and action levels - Guideline No. 71
- Primary production of selected food allergens of plant origin – information to inform risk assessments for the food industry - R&D 323
- Review of polyphosphates as additives and testing methods for them in scallops and prawns (SR654) - Seafish: the authority on seafood
- Reducing the fat content of meat products – a review of fat replacement ingredients - Review No. 65
- Validation of cleaning to remove food allergens - Guideline No. 59
About
After her PhD, Helen joined Campden BRI in 2004 when she spent a year as Technical Support Officer in the Food Composition Section. The next nine years were spent in the Biochemistry Section, where Helen managed the provision of technical contract services in the area of food allergen detection, provided interpretation of testing results, consultancy, information and advice on food allergen testing.
In 2014, Helen moved to our Regulatory team where she has gained comprehensive understanding and experience of food law, not just relating to food allergens.
Helen now uses her knowledge and expertise to provide advice on all aspects of UK and harmonised EU legislation, including relating to food allergens. Helen presents on scheduled and tailored training courses on food law and food allergens, and oversees the production of our Food Law Alert.
Helen has managed various research projects; in 2023 she supervised and contributed to a Review of the literature and guidance on food allergen cleaning for the Food Standards Agency . Helen has also co-authored two guidance documents for the food industry on ‘Validation of cleaning to remove food allergens’ (Campden BRI Guideline 59) and ‘Food allergens: practical risk analysis, testing and action levels’ (Campden BRI Guideline 71).
Areas of interest
- Food law (particularly EU harmonised and UK), all aspects
- Food hypersensitivity including food allergens, gluten and substances that cause intolerances – analysis for these, their management and validation and verification of control measures
- Quantitative risk assessment (QRA) to aid the decision whether to apply precautionary allergen labelling (PAL) or provide precautionary allergen information (PAI) and to inform management of incidents
- Analysis for detection of food allergens and gluten
- Validation and verification of cleaning for food allergen removal
- Provision of training in food law and on food allergens
- Food service
- Food safety
- Food law
- Food labelling and information
Other activities within industry
Member of the Anaphylaxis UK Business Forum