Nicola Holden, Ph.D. is a Professor of Food Safety and leads the Center of Epidemiology and Planetary Health team at Scotland's Rural College. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh and worked as a post-doc there before becoming an independent researcher at the James Hutton Institute. Her research focuses on transmission of foodborne hazards and pathogens in the food chain, especially for ready-to-eat products. She uses a combination of molecular and bioinformatics approaches for fundamental and applied biology, translating to risk assessment and advice for policy organizations and the agri-food industry. She currently sits on the Food Security Advisory Committee for Applied Microbiology International, and serves as one of the Committee's science mentors. She has advised in multiple project steering groups and been on grant funding panels as an assessor and chair. She held a policy fellowship with the Scottish Government on One Health pathogens and advocates FAIR data principles and open science.
As consumer interest in raw milk grows, questions persist about its safety and purported nutritional and health benefits. Examining the evidence can help producers, consumers, and regulators distinguish established risks from emerging science and unsupported claims.
