Pawan Kumar Agarwal appointed CEO of FSSAI

Senior IAS officer Pawan Kumar Agarwal has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Food Regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
He will succeed Yudhvir Singh Malik who was appointed as Additional Secretary in National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog in September 2015.
Pawan Kumar Agarwal is IAS officer of 1985 batch of West Bengal cadre. Presently he is serving as joint secretary in Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
Prior to his appointment, FSSAI Chairman Ashish Bahuguna was holding the additional charge of CEO of the FSSAI.

About Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)

• FSSAI is a nodal statutory agency responsible for protecting and promoting public health in India through the regulation and supervision of food safety.
• FSSAI was established under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and operates under aegis of Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
• Functions: FSSAI has been established to lay down science based standards for various food products in order ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption. It also regulates the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of food products for human consumption.
• Structure: It is led by a non-executive Chairperson. The executive head of FSSAI is the Chief Executive Officer.
• Headquarters: New Delhi. It also has 8 regional offices located in Delhi, Guwahati, Mumbai, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Cochin and Chennai It has 4 referral laboratories and 72 local laboratories located across India.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2015