Biography

I have a Master's degree in biotechnology/environmental microbiology from the Agricultural University of Norway (1995-2000) in Ås, now Norwegian University of Life Sceinces, NMBU. My Master thesis was about bioremediation of PCB contaminated soil by using genetically modified bacteria (Pseudomonas putida). After graduation I worked as an assistant professor at the University College of Telemark for a short period, teaching (among other things) basic toxicology and physiology. Later I worked for about 14 years for the Agricultural Inspection Service/Norwegian Food Safety Authority, working with environmental exposure assessment/modelling and risk assessment of plant protection products/pesticides. In August 2015 i started a PhD (within the Smartcrop project) here at NIBIO and the thesis was apporved in March and defended in May 2019. From 1. January 2019 I have a permanent position at NIBIO as a Researcher at the Department of Pesticides and Natural Products Chemistry. Among other things, I will be leading several projects financed by the Action plan for the sustainable use of pesticides 2016-2020; "The effect of vegetated buffer zones  runoff of pesticides", "Risk tables for evaluating the risk for pesticide leaching",  "Evaluation of the Norwegian surface water runoff scenarios", all of which are to be finalized in 2021/22. Furthermore, I will lead the projects "Updating the WISPE model and the Norwegian surface water runoff scenarios" and "Transport of pesticides in vegetated buffer zones with macroporous soil". Part from that I participate in other bigger or smaller projects in which my role is to use different exposure models to evaluate the risk of leaching, surface runoff or persistence of pesticides in soil.

Read more
To document

Abstract

To ensure compliance with food safety regulations, monitoring programs and reliable analytical methods to detect relevant chemical pollutants in food and the environment are key instruments. Pesticides are an important part of pest management in agriculture to sustain and increase crop yields and control post-harvest decay, while pesticide residues in food may pose a risk to human health. Thus, the levels of pesticide residues in food must be controlled and should align with Maximum Residue Levels regulations to ensure food safety. Food safety monitoring programs and analytical methods for pesticide residues and metabolites are well developed. Future developments to ensure food safety must include the increased awareness and improved regulatory framework to meet the challenges with natural toxins, emerging contaminants, novel biopesticides, and antimicrobial resistance in food and the environment. The reality of a complex mixture of pollutants, natural toxins, and their metabolites potentially occurring in food and the environment implies the necessity to consider combined effects of chemicals in risk assessment. Here, we present challenges, monitoring efforts, and future perspectives for chemical food safety focused on the importance of current developments in high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) technologies to meet the needs in food safety and environmental monitoring.