Paul Brereton is a senior scientist working at the science-policy interface. He has over 30 years’ experience of applied research in the area of food safety and quality. As well as leading numerous national activities, Paul has co-ordinated two of the world’s largest research projects in the area of food authenticity and traceability: the €20M TRACE project (tracing the origin of food) and, FOODINTEGRITY, a €12M EU-sponsored research project that aims to address—at a European level—many of the gaps identified during the recent horsemeat incident. Paul has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers.