Almut Bitterhof, a food chemist by education, works at the European Commission in the area of food safety since 1999. She is currently Deputy Head of Unit in the Unit “Pesticides and biocides” at the Directorate General for Health and Food Safety – DG SANTE, dealing in particular with issues related to pesticide residues in food/feed. She is the chair of the residues section of the respective Regulatory Committee with Member States, the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, section Photo-pharmaceuticals, which is in charge of setting maximum residue levels for pesticides in food and feed. Previously, she had already worked in the same Directorate-General in the area on contaminants legislation, as well as in a horizontal unit dealing with matters related to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and in the Directorate of DG SANTE dealing with audits and inspections. When she joined the Commission in 1999 she came from the private sector heading a unit dealing in particular with product development and analytical methods.