Processing Contaminants in Edible Oils

Shaun MacMahon, PhD is a Research Chemist with the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in College Park, MD. After completing his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from New York University, Shaun worked as a Chemist with the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs in Jamaica, NY, before coming to CFSAN in 2009. His main interest is the application of mass spectrometry to address food safety issues. Shaun has been an active member of the American Oil Chemists’ Society since 2010 and has co-chaired the Trace Contaminants session at the AOCS Annual Meeting for the last three years. Dr. Jessica Beekman obtained her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Florida, USA in 2014. She completed postdoctoral fellowships in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Florida and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Jessica is currently a Research Chemist at the U.S. FDA where her work focuses on the development of analytical methods for the analysis of chemical contaminants in food products. In particular, Jessica has spent the last 6 years on the development of methods for the analysis of MCPD and glycidyl esters in infant formula and other processed foods. She has authored numerous publications regarding MPCD and glycidyl esters research and has presented her work at meetings and conferences worldwide.