The state Department of Health recently completed inspections of virtually all of Hawaii’s more than 10,000 food establishments statewide to ensure they are in compliance with the rules of the state’s food safety code.
The department’s Sanitation Branch launched inspections of food establishments with a color-coded placard system in July 2014. The inspections covered about 6,000 establishments on Oahu, 1,800 on Hawaii Island, 1,700 in Maui County, and 690 on Kauai. On Oahu, there are currently 30 Department of Health inspectors in the field; seven on Hawaii Island; four for Maui County; and three on Kauai.
The state food safety code requires inspections of restaurants, hotels, caterers, food warehouses, markets, convenience stores, lunch wagons, push carts and institutional kitchens for health care facilities, preschools, elementary schools, adult and child day care centers, and prisons.
Green placards are issued for establishments with no more than one critical violation that must be corrected at the time of inspection; yellow cards are issued to those with two or more critical violations; and red placards are used for those food establishments that need to be immediately closed because they pose an imminent health hazard to the community.
Of all the establishments that were inspected since the program began, the Hawaii Department of Health has issued only three red placards with monetary fines – all on Oahu – that required the suspension of their permit and were ordered to temporarily close their operations.
The Department of Health issued 2,105 yellow placards or conditional passes that require the establishments to address violations. On average, establishments took two to three days to make corrections.
“There has been a voluntary compliance rate of over 99.8 percent for those food facilities that were issued a yellow placard. This confirms that the placarding program has been a huge success in terms of influencing rapid and voluntary correction of food safety violations,” said Peter Oshiro, who oversees the Department of Health’s inspection progra.
