Eva Edwards is a competent and resourceful professional with over 25 years of varied work experience in the health, food safety, nutrition, and regulatory sectors. She has distinguished herself over the years by dint of hard work, rising steadily through the ranks from Principal Regulatory Officer till her present appointment as the Director, Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FSAN) Directorate which took effect from 1st January 2021.
Her NAFDAC career started in the then Registration and Regulatory Affairs (R&R) Directorate where as a young officer she received very firm grounding in registration and regulatory activities from extremely seasoned senior colleagues and the overall leadership of the Agency.
As a pioneer staff of the FSAN Directorate she was part of the core group that laid down the structure of the Directorate to achieve the goal of contributing to strengthening the food safety system in Nigeria and creating a synergy with other actors in the food safety and nutrition space. She continues to make immense positive contributions to the growth, professionalism, and operational stability of the FSAN Directorate, as well as the modernization and strengthening of the national food safety control and management system in line with global best practices and standards. In November 2020, she was appointed by the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) to serve as a member of WHO Technical Advisory Group on Food Safety: Safer Food for Better Health. Eva Edwards is also the FAO/WHO INFOSAN Emergency Contact Point in Nigeria and became an INFOSAN Ambassador in November 2021. She is a recognized expert on food fortification, the National Fortification Alliance (NFA), the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes and the National regulations for the implementation, monitoring, and enforcement of the Code in Nigeria; this is widely acknowledged by international and national invitations to speak on the subjects.
Over the years as a regulator in NAFDAC, Eva has garnered an advanced level of technical knowledge and experience in various aspects of food safety and nutrition: food legislation/regulations, food standards, food labelling, Good Hygiene Practice (GHP)/Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) inspections of food establishments, HACCP, food fortification, micronutrient deficiencies, infant and young child nutrition, International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, amongst others. She has also had the opportunity to be strategically involved and contribute to several national and international technical committees deliberating on food safety and nutrition issues.
On the international food standards setting stage, Eva Edwards has on several occasions served as the Head of Nigeria Delegation to international Codex Committee meetings leading impactful contributions from Nigeria and Africa; these include the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, Codex Committee on Food Labelling, and Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems. She also serves as an expert at the regional level participating in African Codex Expert meetings on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses as well as on Food Labelling. In the course of her career, she has been privileged to be a member of Nigeria’s delegation to World Health Assembly (WHA) meetings. She has also delivered many presentations at national and international training fora, workshops, conferences, had radio and television interviews/live television appearance on various food safety and nutrition topics. She is a longstanding member and Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (FNIFST).
Eva Edwards is a proud alumna of the University of Lagos, Nigeria from where she graduated in 1988 as the best graduating student in her department with her Bachelor of Science degree. She proceeded to the prestigious University College London (UCL)/London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), University of London, England, where she obtained her Master of Science degree with distinction in General and Medical Microbiology in 1990 finishing as the best graduating student in the program.
Her quest for a deeper knowledge of public health took her to Amsterdam in The Netherlands where she studied at the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT)/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree graduating with merit in 2012. She has always had a love for the French Language and culture which inspired her to take a French language course (DELF A2) to facilitate her immersion and communication. She has attended several courses, workshops, and conferences on various aspects of Food Safety as well as Nutrition and Food Systems.
Eva Edwards has a keen interest in mentoring which she gives expression through identifying and nurturing talent, as well as successfully growing and leading teams to achieve desired results. In her present role as the Director, Food Safety and Applied Nutrition Directorate, she brings on board her vast knowledge and wealth of varied experience in food safety and nutrition and is guided by her proven strong work ethics and professionalism.
