FSSAI chief moved to NITI Aayog

Step is ahead of PM's visit to the US, where he will meet industry leaders

Yudhvir Singh Malik, who presided over the ban of Nestlé India’s Maggi noodles as chief executive officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) in June, has been transferred to NITI Aayog. In a late evening order on Tuesday, hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi started on his trip to the US, the government appointed Malik, a Haryana cadre Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1983 batch, as additional secretary of the NITI Aayog, a new post.

This follows cancellation of the appointment of Keshni Anand, another 1983 batch Haryana cadre IAS officer, to the post. Anand’s appointment was announced two weeks ago.

In July, former agriculture secretary Ashish Bahuguna was named chairman of FSSAI, several months after the post was left vacant.

The food sector had seen widespread anger and disgruntlement due to pan-India recall of Maggi noodles, the signature brand of Swiss food major Nestlé. On June 5, FSSAI had ordered the withdrawal of Maggi noodles, as some states had found monosodium glutamate (MSG) and excessive lead after testing a few samples of the product. The regulator said Maggi noodles was “unsafe and hazardous for human consumption”.

When FSSAI ordered the recall of the product, Paul Bulcke, chief executive of Nestlé, was addressing a press conference here to announce voluntary withdrawal of Maggi noodles as a precautionary measure.

He had flown down to manage the crisis, which had been building up for weeks.

Since the recall, several changes have been announced, both by the government as well as Nestlé. While several Union ministers spoke against the FSSAI action, saying it had created an environment of fear for the sector, the government decided to discontinue the process of product approvals by the regulator. In August, FSSAI cited a Supreme Court order and said it wasn’t possible for it to continue with product approvals, sending out a signal that food and health care products could be launched freely in the market till a legal framework was put in place.

Nestlé, on its part, said it would cooperate with the government and the regulator, especially in terms of appropriate labelling of products. The company also appointed a new India head soon after the Maggi recall.

Etienne Benet, chief of the company’s India operations during the Maggi controversy, was replaced by Suresh Narayanan, the first Indian to be appointed to the post in 16 years.

Replying to a question on the Maggi controversy, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently told Business Standard, “The matter could have been handled much better.”

Industry observers say with the PM slated to meet the chief executives and founders of several multinational companies in the US through the next week, a top-level rejig at FSSAI will send a positive message to the global community.

Recently, the Bombay High Court had given a fresh lease of life to Maggi by ordering the noodles be tested afresh at three accredited laboratories in India.