Food safety rule amendments that will require every restaurant to have at least one certified food handler per shift, among other changes, will be the subject of a public hearing from 2-5 p.m. today at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
Food safety rule amendments that will require every restaurant to have at least one certified food handler per shift, among other changes, will be the subject of a public hearing from 2-5 p.m. today at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
The state Department of Health is hosting the sessions statewide as it works to bring its food safety standards in line with the 2013 U.S. Food and Drug Administration Model Food Code, the most current nationally recognized food code.
Fewer than a dozen people attended a hearing Wednesday afternoon in Hilo. There are about 2,000 food establishments on the Big Island.
“We’ve been talking about this with the industry for a year and a half,” Peter Oshiro, sanitation branch chief for the Health Department, said of the low turnout. “Nothing is a surprise.”
Most who attended the hearing were concerned with the food handler certificate and the loosening of restrictions for cottage industries.
The mandatory training and certification for at least one food handler on each shift in a commercial food establishment is aimed at protecting the public from food-borne illnesses through education and training.
The free classes provide the food handler with a basic understanding of food microbiology, allowing them to become familiar with the major food-borne illnesses and learn to implement specific procedures to ensure safe food preparation. The department has offered classes, but not required them, since 1989.
“It seems the rules are more stringent,” said Beth Dykstra, economic development specialist at the Hawaii County Department of Research and Development. “But in cottage industry, it really doesn’t matter.”
The cottage industry, or homemade food sales, previously had a limit of 20 sale days in every 120-day window for homemade foods not considered a potential public health risk. Now, there’s no license or inspection requirement and no limit of sale days, as long as the foods are low-risk under the rule change.
The 20 days were removed from the requirement at the request of the state Legislature, Oshiro said. There actually have been few if any health problems tied to the sale of products from cottage industries, he said.
State Sen. Russell Ruderman, a Puna Democrat, thanked the department for expanding sales for cottage industries. A 40-year veteran of the food industry, Ruderman sponsored legislation in 2015 loosening requirements on homemade foods, but the Legislature acceded to the Health Department request to allow it to change the rules instead.
“We really appreciate you following through on it,” Ruderman said. “It’s just one element of encouraging the use of local foods.”
Still, an agreement with local food and cottage industry advocates is resulting in stricter standards, even though those industries aren’t licensed. At their request, the Health Department will require mandatory food-handler education and labeling requirements that the homemade foods were done in a facility not inspected by the department.
The department still reserves the right to investigate, embargo, seize and halt the sales of any food product, including homemade foods, deemed to be a public health risk.
All proposed changes to the rules are shown at https://health.hawaii.gov/opppd/files/2015/06/11-50-revision-Ramseyer.pdf.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.