European Initiatives: the EU platform

After completing a Ph.D in Food Microbiology, Dr Back joined the UK Civil Service in 1990. Having initially worked as a laboratory scientist in Norwich, he moved to a policy post in London in 1993 and spent the next 7 years working on a variety of microbiological issues, concentrating mainly on research and surveillance. He moved to the UK Food Standards Agency when it was set up in 2000 and for the next 3 years continued to concentrate on microbiological policy development and research, including involvement in EU and CODEX negotiations.

In 2003 he moved into the nutrition field taking on, amongst other things, responsibility for nutrition labelling and general food labelling. This included the Agency’s work on front-of-pack signposting, nutrient profiling and marketing to children as well as responsibility for the EU negotiations on the Health Claims and Fortification proposals. Other areas of work in which he was involved included PARNUTS foods, allergen labelling and food supplements.

In February 2005, he was seconded from the Food Standards Agency to the European Commission. Joining the Food Law Unit of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General (DG SANCO) as a detached national expert. His main role was to work on revision of the nutrition labelling directive, however he also became involved in general labelling issues and in the work of the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.

In September 2007 he moved to the Strategy and Analysis Unit of DG SANCO. He has responsibility for the monitoring aspects of the EU Platform on Diet, Physical Activity and Health and will be involved in a similar role in relation to the monitoring of the recent White Paper A Strategy for Europe on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity Related Health Issues. In addition, with other colleagues in the Unit, he covers the Better Regulation work of DG SANCO. Primarily by providing advice and support on the production of impact assessments.