Yasmine Motarjemi (born 1955) is a food safety specialist and

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

Biography

Motarjemi studied chemistry and biology at the Claude-Bernard University in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

and food industry techniques at the

University of Montpellier The University of Montpellier (french: Université de Montpellier) is a public university, public research university located in Montpellier, in south-east of France. Established in 1220, the University of Montpellier is one of the oldest univ ...

, before doing PhD studies in food technology at the

University of Lund , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion World Health Organisation The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

in Geneva, where she became a scientific expert and Director of Food Security and Food Aid. From 2000, as Corporate Food Safety Manager and Assistant Vice-President, she became responsible for food safety at

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

's headquarters in

Vevey Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used. It was the seat of the district of ...

. In 2003, following a complaint from parents, she wanted to withdraw from the market baby biscuits manufactured by the multinational . From 2006 onwards, she called for an audit on the toxicity of baby products. In 2009, a large-scale food poisoning incident affected 300,000 babies in China, 13 of whom died. The director of the offending products was promoted and became her manager. He took away her responsibilities and relegated her to menial tasks. In 2010, she was fired. In March 2011, she filed a complaint against Nestlé with the court of the canton of Vaud for moral and psychological harassment. By a judgement of 7 January 2020, the civil court of appeal recognised the grounds for harassment and that she had been intimidated in an "insidious manner". In 2019, she received the GUE/NGL Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers and Defenders of the Right to Information. Motarjemi was nominated for the Prix Courage 2020 by the Swiss magazine Beobachter, a prize that honours and promotes personalities "who fight fearlessly and with dedication for an idea - for an open, united and fair Switzerland".

Bibliography

* (Co-editor) ''Encyclopedia on Food Safety'', Academic Press, 2014

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motarjemi, Yasmine Living people 1955 births Swiss whistleblowers Iranian whistleblowers