Richard Harding, PhD

Formerly Head of Consumer Choice, Food Standards and Special Projects Division, Food Standards Agency, UK

Richard Harding has degrees in chemistry and food science from the Universities of Nottingham and Leeds, and also trained in law. After a period of research in the brewing industry, he had a long career as a scientist in the UK civil service, first in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and later in the Food Standards Agency. In this capacity he represented the UK in many EU, OIV and WHO meetings. He served on the Department of Health’s Inter-Departmental Working Group on Sensible Drinking in 1995, which led to a change in the UK’s public health policy on alcohol consumption, and in 2011 gave oral evidence on alcohol and public health to the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology.