Dr Elinor McCartney

Dr Elinor McCartney

Technical Director 

Dr Elinor McCartney has over 30 years’ experience in product development and EU regulatory affairs for multiple categories, including food and feed additives, novel foods and nutrition and health claims. Elinor is a graduate of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, where she also obtained a PhD in enteric diseases of piglets. She has an MBA (with distinction) and has tutored Finance and Marketing for the Open University Business School.

In 2000, Elinor set up Pen & Tec Consulting to help companies comply with EU regulations and legally sell their food and feed products in Europe. Elinor mainly provides strategic advice to clients on legal status and best regulatory options to accelerate time to market. Elinor is a frequent and popular speaker at international conferences on topics such as probiotics and nutritional support for human and animal health and is also the author or co-author of over 25 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Laura Payo Lewis

Laura Payo Lewis

Regulatory Affairs Director

Animal Nutrition

Laura Payo Lewis specialises in both EU food and feed product registrations. She is an experienced regulatory manager, helping numerous clients take their products to market, such as enzymes used as animal digestibility enhancers or as food processing aids. She holds a Master in Biotechnology from the University of Salamanca, and interned in the cell culture quality control department of Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health in 2010.

Laura has delivered seminars on regulations and procedures for registering feed and feed additives in the EU. She also provides training sessions for client regulatory teams on all aspects of the EU registration process, on topics such as understanding data requirements for the risk assessment of food and feed products derived from genetically modified microorganisms. Since joining Pen & Tec in 2011, Laura has acquired a deeper knowledge of the regulatory requirements in other jurisdictions, working on Food Additive Petitions or GRAS determinations (US FDA) or feed additive registrations in Brazil.

Ing. Justyna Pałasińska

Ing. Justyna Pałasińska

Regulatory Affairs Director

Human Nutrition

Ing. Justyna Pałasińska holds a Master in Food Technology and Human Nutrition, specialising in meat production, as well as a degree in Biomedical Engineering. Since joining Pen & Tec in 2013, Justyna has gained experience in managing both food and feed projects such as novel foods, nutrition and health claims, food for special medical purposes, food supplements and feed additives, including amino acids, bacteriophages, enzymes and plant derived products. She has also worked on projects for the US market, through FAP, GRAS determination and NDI notification. Justyna is currently managing and developing the food department of Pen & Tec.

Dr Montserrat Cerrato Sánchez

Dr Montserrat Cerrato Sánchez

Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager

Dr Montse Cerrato Sánchez specialises in feed product registrations and feed labelling compliance. She joined Pen & Tec in 2011 and has worked on coccidiostat and probiotic feed additive applications, assisting clients in project management, elaboration of registration dossiers and conducting EFSA compliant studies. She also provides advice on all aspects of the feed labelling development process to ensure compliant presentation and advertising of feedstuffs.

Montse has delivered training sessions for client regulatory teams on the EU feed additive registration process and feed labelling legislation. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Veterinary Medicine and a PhD in Animal Production from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

Rocío Duchén Bocángel

Rocío Duchén Bocángel

Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager

Rocío Duchén is an analytical chemist, with experience in research and consulting. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Chemistry, a Master Degree in Forensic Chemistry, as well as a Master Degree in Translation Studies. Rocío has worked in research of natural products and food additives and has experience in the development and validation of analytical methods. She has also collaborated as a specialist consultant in the food industry and the Government Office of Genetic Resources in her home country, Bolivia, being co-author of a compilation book on Bolivian plants with therapeutic potential. Since her incorporation to Pen & Tec Consulting’s team, in 2017, she has broadened her experience as a Regulatory Affairs Manager, focusing on the registration of food and feed regulated products in the EU.

Dr Eliana Henriquez Rodriguez

Dr Eliana Henriquez Rodriguez

Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager

Dr Eliana Henriquez Rodriguez is an Agricultural Engineer with applied experience in animal production and research. Eliana holds a Master of Science in Animal Breeding and Reproduction Biotechnology (Autonomous University of Barcelona and Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain) as well as a PhD in Agricultural and Food Science and Technology (University of Lleida, Spain). Eliana’s thesis focused on the validation of genetic markers to improve pork quality and generated results published in different peer-reviewed journals. In addition to working as a supervisor on pig farms in Venezuela, Eliana’s experience in industry and academia also includes an internship with Pig Improvement Company (USA) and a laboratory research project at TEAGASC Food Research Centre (Ireland), as part of her PhD training.

Caroline Idowu

Caroline Idowu

Regulatory Affairs Manager

Caroline Idowu holds an integrated master’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Sheffield specialising in Physical Chemistry. Her final year thesis focused on the study of increasing the efficiency of dye-sensitised solar cells. Caroline spent the third year of her degree studying at Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, France where she gained laboratory experience covering many branches of chemistry and material science and was involved in many analytical based projects.

Caroline was working in Spain before she joined Pen & Tec in 2019 and has worked on various feed and novel food projects.

Mireia Romagosa Vilarnau

Mireia Romagosa Vilarnau

Mireia Romagosa is a pharmacist specialized in healthcare and clinical assays. She holds a Master of Science in food safety and food law from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). After she finished the Master she joined the UAB’s “Fòrum Normes Alimentàries”, an alumni group dedicated to quality management and food safety, focused on the study and evaluation of food law.

Before joining Pen & Tec, Mireia worked in the area of hospital assistance, pharmacy and public health, which is related to her Master thesis on ‘Legionella safety approach in low-risk systems’. She has broad experience in the field of medical nutrition and food supplements, where she acted as a quality manager and supported the regulatory affairs, R&D and marketing departments. Mireia holds a certification of IRCA auditor of ISO 22000:2005 (Bureau Veritas) and attended trainings on halal certification, patents and utility models (University of Barcelona). In her last workplace she oversaw ISO 22000:2018 implementation and halal certification.

Mireia’s main interest are food safety, food law and quality systems.

Nikolaas Tilkin-Franssens

Nikolaas Tilkin-Franssens

Regulatory Affairs Manager

Nikolaas Tilkin-Franssens holds a Master of Laws in International and Economic Law (KU Leuven) and a Master of Science in Food Safety Law (Wageningen University). Combining his law vocation with his passion for food and nutrition, Nikolaas secures the smooth access of inventive companies and their products to new markets.

Nikolaas has extensive international experience working in food regulatory affairs. He has taken positions in a law firm, consultancy firms and at Danone (Nutricia) and joined Pen & Tec in 2022. He has profound expertise with the regulations applicable to innovative and specialised foods, including food supplements, infant and follow-on formula, medical foods and more recently alternative proteins. Nikolaas has contributed as an author to a publication the European Food and Food Law Review and as an editor to the book titled ´the functional field of food law, reconciling the market and human rights´.

Ioannis Kartanos

Ioannis Kartanos

Regulatory Affairs Associate

Andressa Daronco Cereta

Andressa Daronco Cereta

Dr Andressa Daronco Cereta graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the Federal University of Santa Maria and holds a Master of Science and a PhD in Veterinary Sciences from the University of São Paulo, both in Brazil. Andressa had spent 2019 and 2020 as a research visitor at the University of Barcelona and at the Bellvitge Institute for Biomedical Research developing studies in the fields of bioengineering and regenerative medicine, focusing on 2D and 3D cell cultures, bioprinting and animal models. She has collaborated on and developed several research studies, being the author and co-author of high impact scientific papers.

Andressa also earned a Master in Project Management from the University of Barcelona/OBS Business School in 2021 and joined Pen & Tec in 2022.

Nataliia Sotska

Nataliia Sotska, MBA

Marketing Manager

Nataliia Sotska is an experienced marketing leader with over 9 years’ experience creating strategies and producing advertising for brands. She joined Pen & Tec in 2015 focusing on marketing strategy, campaign execution and client development. She is a creative tactician in the fields of strategic planning, brand advertising, digital marketing, media production, sales, direct marketing and professional development.

Before joining Pen & Tec Nataliia held multiple marketing and business development positions for both B2C and B2B industries.

Nataliia holds an MBA diploma from the EAE Business School from Barcelona and multiple degrees in marketing, digital marketing and business analytics from INSA Business School (Barcelona). In 2020 Nataliia graduated from Seeway LCI Barcelona as a Graphic designer.

Dawn Botha

Dawn Botha

Dawn Botha is from South Africa. She studied Animal Science at the University of Pretoria and then went on to complete a Master of Science in dairy nutrition at the University of Stellenbosch near Cape Town. Later in her career, she took an interest in marketing management and decided to add this to her skill set.  

She has extensive experience within the animal nutrition and animal health fields, in particular production animals and has worked for multinational animal health companies in South Africa. She joined Pen & Tec in 2022 as their Technical Marketing Manager. 

Beatriz Baeza

Beatriz Baeza

Beatriz Baeza is part of Pen & Tec’s administrative team. She has a background in marketing and tourism management, specializing in customer service for international clients. She has worked for international tourism companies and big exhibitions in Mexico City.

Beatriz studied a Master on International Tourism Management at Ostelea School of Tourism and Universidad de Lleida in Barcelona (2020) and graduated in 2011 from ITESM Campus Chihuahua, Mexico, obtaining a diploma in Marketing.

She joined Pen & Tec in 2022, managing the office and ensuring our team is well cared for.