Francesco Planchenstainer

Global Head of Food Law, Nestlé, Vevey

Francesco Planchenstainer, PhD, has recently joined Nestlé as Global Head of Food Law based in the corporate headquarters of Vevey (Switzerland).

He has been an active expert within several food industry working groups including Food Drink Europe, the US Consumer Brand Association, the US American Baker’s Association and the National Confectionery Association. He is also member of the European Food Law Association’s Council.

Dr. Planchenstainer completed his legal education from University of Trent (Italy). He went on to obtain his Ph.D. in Food Law from Agrisystem, the Doctoral Program focused on the Agro-Food system at the Catholic University (Italy). He further specialized in US law by successfully completing an LLM in US Law at Fordham University (New York).

Following his graduate studies, he broadened his expertise in Food Law and Regulation by joining Cherchi & Co., PA (2011) and the European Commission (DG SANTE) as a Bluebook Intern (2012). From 2012 till 2016 he was Senior Regulatory and Food Law Expert at Mead Jonson Nutrition (Indiana, USA), a global leader in the field pediatric nutrition. More recently, he was Senior Regulatory Counsel at the Ferrero’s headquarters in Luxembourg between 2016 and 2019. From 2020 to 2022 he served as Food Compliance & Regulatory director within Ferrero USA supporting the compliance of several M&A rounds. More recently, he was Regulatory Affairs Director at Impossible Foods, the maker of the iconic plant-based burger.

He is regularly invited speaker at conference relating to the regulation of novel foods, biotechnology and nanotechnology and he is lecturer of Food Law at the University of Trento.