Food & Feed regulatory team

Jenni Liljavirta, Ph.D.
Director, Food and Feed

Jenni Liljavirta is responsible for operations, internal development, and sales and business development, working closely with internal teams to ensure efficient and commercially relevant services. Jenni holds a PhD in veterinary immunology and a Master’s degree in biochemistry and brings over a decade of experience in the food, feed, and biosciences industry.

Jenni joined Medfiles in 2025 and has led the Food & Feed Unit since 2026. Before joining Medfiles, she worked in international companies leading global research projects on bioactive ingredients, including pro‑, pre‑ and postbiotics, immune health, and microbiota, gaining valuable people leadership experience while coordinating multidisciplinary and international research teams.

She has extensive experience in animal nutrition and feed, including the design and conduct of pre‑clinical and in vitro studies for animal dietary supplements and feed additives, supporting safety, efficacy, and regulatory requirements. Jenni has also built regulatory affairs expertise by producing scientific and technical materials for regulatory applications and by actively following developments in the regulatory field. Jenni has authored multiple peer‑reviewed scientific publications and is an inventor on patent applications and invention disclosures (IDNs). In addition to her professional skills Jenni is fluent in Italian and has good comprehension of French.

Mari Lyyra
Regulatory Affairs Manager, Food and Feed

Mari Lyyra holds an M.Sc. in Public Health, specialising in clinical nutrition, and is a licensed nutritionist. Early in her career, Mari began focusing on food regulatory tasks in the EU. With over 25 years of extensive experience, she is well-versed in regulatory and scientific work related to traditional foods, food supplements, functional foods with health claims, food additives, food enzymes, and innovative ingredients. 

Mari has worked for Medfiles since 2014 and led the Medfiles Food & Feed team in 2019-2025. Currently she is working as Regulatory Affairs Manager.

Since 1999, Mari has concentrated particularly on novel foods, which has become her primary area of expertise. She has been involved in dozens of favourable novel food projects and dossiers in the EU. In addition to EU legislation and novel foods, she has also mastered US food legislation and practices, including GRAS and NDI for last 10 years. 

Over the past decade, she has also trained in animal feed regulations and contributed to numerous animal feed projects. Mari brings extensive experience in expert and strategic consulting for clients across various projects in both the EU and the United States. She has authored numerous articles for food journals and contributed to peer-reviewed scientific publications. In recent years, Mari has delivered several lectures on food regulation at various Nordic and international events.

Mari Eskola, Ph.D.
Team leader, Regulatory Science and Reports //
Senior Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food and feed

Mari Eskola joined Medfiles in 2021 and leads the Regulatory Science and Reports Team. Since starting at Medfiles, she has been involved in a wide range of projects relating to food, feed, and cosmetics safety.

Mari has nearly 30 years of broad international expertise in the chemical and regulatory safety of food and feed, acquired across the European Union, national authorities, and industry. At Medfiles, she brings over 15 years’ experience as a regulatory food and feed risk assessor. Mari developed her risk assessment expertise working for 10 years at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), where she conducted regulatory risk assessments of contaminants in food and feed. She also served as Acting and Deputy Head of the EFSA Contaminants Unit. She is a food chemist specialising in analytical chemistry and obtained her PhD in food science in 2002.

In addition, Mari has extensive food and feed research and regulatory experience from several European institutes, including the European Commission Joint Research Centre (EC JRC), the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), Teagasc in Ireland, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Austria, and the former Finnish Food Safety Authority. She has international experience in project and people management and has authored numerous scientific publications, including many EFSA scientific opinions and risk assessments.

Pia Karjalainen
Team leader, Health claims and Nutrition //
Senior Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food and feed

Pia Karjalainen has advised companies on various topics within food regulatory and scientific affairs throughout the past 15 years. Since the beginning of her regulatory career, Pia has focused on health claims, which has become her key competence area.

She has gained wide regulatory expertise for a vast range of food categories, such as food supplements, foods for special medical purposes, food additives, novel foods and conventional foods. In recent years, Pia has expanded her areas of expertise to include animal feed.

She also has in-depth expertise in designing regulatory strategies for innovative ingredients. Her ability to understand the bigger regulatory picture and work with a solution-oriented attitude has led her to leading and handling many complex projects related to different product categories and borderline products.

Pia has earned a master’s degree in health sciences (nutrition) from the University of Eastern Finland. Prior to joining Medfiles in 2014, she worked with food regulatory affairs and as a registered dietitian in healthcare.

Mia Gothóni
Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food

Mia joined Medfiles in 2018, with previous experience in food labelling. Since then, she has led and worked with a broad range of projects and different product categories. As of June 2023, she is also Team leader of the labelling team.

Mia’s core expertise is in food supplements and food labelling; however, with her linguistic skills (she is bilingual in Finnish and Swedish), she can handle regulatory projects effectively and in a client-oriented manner also in the other Nordic countries. In addition, she assists in Swedish-language checks and translations of product-related information of medicinal products and medical devices, whenever needed.

Mia has a M.Sc. degree in food sciences (nutrition) with minor studies in psychology and communications. Her previous studies in business administration and management provide insight into the needs of Medfiles’ valued clients, not only from a regulatory point of view, but in terms of practical issues, tight schedules, budgets and goals. Together with her team, she helps clients reach new markets, launch products compliant with the applicable legislation and create package labels that serve both the client and the consumer.

Ingrid Hagberg
Regulatory Affairs Expert & Toxicologist
Food and feed

Ingrid joined Medfiles in autumn 2023 as a Toxicologist and Regulatory Affairs Expert. Since then, she has been involved in projects related to food, feed, and cosmetics. Before joining Medfiles, Ingrid worked at Health Canada, where she evaluated and managed risks associated with chemical substances in food.

During this time, she developed strong expertise in the regulatory risk assessment of food-related substances such as contaminants and food flavourings. This has given Ingrid deep knowledge in using toxicology in risk assessment which she expertly uses in her food, feed, and cosmetics projects at Medfiles. She also has several years of experience as a food inspector for the Government of Canada, where she carried out regulatory tasks in food safety and labelling.

As a native English speaker, Ingrid excels in communicating with international agencies and preparing high-quality reports.

She holds a B.Sc. in Food Science from Carleton University (Canada) and an M.Sc. in Toxicology from the University of Eastern Finland. Her combined background in food science and toxicology offers a rare and valuable skillset that directly benefits our clients.

Elina Hautaniemi, Ph.D.
Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food

Elina joined Medfiles in 2020. She is a registered dietitian and pharmacist and has a PhD degree in internal medicine. Elina has diverse work experience in healthcare, clinical research and food regulatory affairs. Before Medfiles, Elina worked for several years as a registered dietitian in hospital care.

Through her career, she has gained extensive experience in clinical nutrition. She has also worked as a nutrition specialist at a CRO in various clinical research projects on health effects of foods. At the Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Tampere University, she was a member of research group investigating the haemodynamics in primary and secondary hypertension versus normotensive control subjects. Her PhD studies focused on the haemodynamic effects of liquorice and lactotripeptides. At Medfiles, Elina has been involved in regulatory projects related to for instance novel foods, health claims and food additives. She has authored several scientific publications, has extensive experience in scientific writing and excellent skills in project management.

Anne Kivimäki, Ph.D.
Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food

Anne joined Medfiles in 2021 and has been involved in several client projects since then. Her diverse and interdisciplinary experience in food and biomedicine brings a broad perspective and innovative problem-solving skills to various projects.

In her current role, Anne can benefit from her diverse education, which includes a PhD in biomedical sciences, a Master’s degree in food chemistry with a specialisation in food safety, and an Bachelor of engineering degree in bio- and food technology.

Anne has a solid 20 years of scientific research experience in medical nutrition physiology, pharmacology, and oral health. In her PhD research, Anne studied the effects of Nordic berries on cardiovascular function, which illustrates her interest in the health effects of food. During her scientific career, Anne has been involved in several national and international pre-clinical and clinical research projects, and coordinated the operations of a research laboratory. As a result, she has excellent project management and coordination skills and a wealth of experience in scientific writing.

With a degree in Bio- and Food Engineering, Anne has solid expertise in food processing techniques and technologies. Prior to her university career, Anne gained valuable experience in the food industry, working as a health inspector and in food production.

Mari Riuttala
Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food and feed

Mari Riuttala has worked at Medfiles since August 2021. She has a M.Sc. degree in food sciences from the University of Helsinki, where she majored in cereal science and technology. As her minor subjects, Mari studied nutrition and food chemistry.

After her graduation, Mari has worked with regulatory tasks related to food, feed and cosmetics products. She has experience in writing and reviewing labelling, calculating nutritional values, checking the legality of ingredients and evaluating the terms of using nutrition and health claims. Before Medfiles, Mari worked as a product information manager in the food industry.

Mari also has the vocational qualification of restaurant cook and bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, as well as a wide range of experience in different tasks in the restaurant industry and as a baker. With her studies and work experience, Mari brings to the table strong expertise in different ingredients as well as their behaviour in food processes, baking in particular.

Maija Salmenhaara
Team leader, Labelling //
Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food and feed

Maija has worked at Medfiles from 2019. Her expertise covers regulatory affairs in food and feed, and she has strong competence in regulations concerning food composition and safety, food labelling, nutrition and health claims, novel food ingredients, food supplements and fortified foods.

She is also very experienced with work related to animal feed composition, labelling and marketing claims, with a balanced set of skills in project management, client service and writing reports.

Maija has a M.Sc. degree in food sciences (nutrition) from 2007. Before Medfiles, Maija has worked both in governmental agencies and the private sector, focusing on nutrition research, risk assessment and market research.

Lotta Wickholm
Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food

Lotta joined Medfiles in 2021 and has since been able to apply her expertise to many client projects, especially in the area of food supplement and food legislation. Lotta studied Clinical Nutrition, Food Biotechnology and Marketing at the University of Eastern Finland.

During her career, Lotta has had the opportunity to work specifically on food supplements, including product development, ingredient legality checks, labelling and assessing the legality of health claims made in the marketing of food supplements. Lotta’s expertise also covers regulations concerning food composition and labelling, and reimbursement applications of food for special medical purposes. She also regularly writes marketing and blog texts for clients.

Prior to her current role at Medfiles, Lotta worked in the food and food supplements industry.

Amin Yousefvand, Ph.D.
Regulatory Affairs Expert
Food and feed

Amin joined Medfiles in 2025 and since then has been involved in projects relating to food and animal feed product development, regulatory affairs, and food supplements. He has collaborated with a wide range of companies on projects involving novel foods, postbiotics, functional ingredients, feed additives, and food supplements.

He has over a decade of combined academic and industry experience, including teaching and research at the University of Helsinki. Through these roles, Amin has developed expertise in microbiology, fermentation technologies, food safety, bioactive compounds, mycotoxin-binding studies, and antimicrobial compounds. He also has extensive experience in designing and managing research studies for both food and feed products, preparing EU regulatory dossiers, and collaborating with international partners across Europe.

Amin holds a Ph.D. in Food Microbiology and Technology, an M.Sc. in Food Health and Quality Control, and a B.Sc. in Food Hygiene. He combines strong scientific evidence with practical, solution-oriented strategies to support Medfiles’ clients in bringing innovative products to market. In addition to his native Persian, Amin speaks Kurdish and English fluently, has basic Finnish skills, and understands beginner-level Arabic.