Former agriculture secretary Ashish Bahuguna has been appointed as the chairman of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. The tenure of the chairman is for three years.
The position of the chairman was lying vacant since January this year after the tenure of K Chandramouli had come to an end. Thereafter, Bhanu Pratap Sharma, secretary, health and family welfare, was given an additional charge temporarily as the FSSAI chairman.
Bahuguna, a 1978-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan cadre, retired in February this year. A career officer in the Indian Administrative service (IAS), he has previously served in a number of senior positions within the Indian Government, such as in the Ministry of Food processing Industries, Finance. Most recently he served as Special Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Agriculture Ministry before being appointed as Secretary for Agriculture and cooperation in May 2012. He has degrees in chemistry and law.
FSSAI has lately been in the news after it banned Nestle’s instant noodles Maggi for being “unsafe and hazardous” for human consumption after it found excessive levels of lead and presence of taste enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG).