The state Department of Health will require all restaurants statewide — during food prep and service — to have a staff member on-site who is certified in food safety.
The new rule, one of about a half-dozen already subjected to public comment, goes into effect Saturday. But restaurants have a year to get staff trained.
The changes are intended to decrease the risk of food-borne illness by giving every restaurant a basic level of expertise.
“Studies have shown that food establishments with properly trained persons-in-charge have a lower occurrence of critical food-safety violations that are directly linked to food illnesses,” the DOH said in a written announcement.
Restaurant inspections nationwide have been evolving, said DOH Environmental Health Program Manager Peter Oshiro, who worked as a health inspector earlier in his career.
Restaurants used to get in trouble from health inspectors for messy tabletops. But research has shown inspectors should focus instead on problems most likely to actually cause illness.
Food kept uncooked or unrefrigerated, for example, has a higher likelihood to cause a food-borne illness than a messy counter or floor. Inspectors focus more these days on food temperatures, storage and handling than on restaurant appearance.
“We don’t care about the aesthetic things any more,” Oshiro said.
Instead, handwashing, fridge temperatures, sanitation, keeping hot foods hot and preventing cross-contamination are essential, he said.
If the new rules don’t do enough to improve food safety, he said, the state will require all restaurant workers to become certified.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, the latest year updated, there were 15 food-borne illness outbreaks reported in Hawaii.
Ric Maiava, general manager of Ken’s House of Pancakes in Hilo, said requiring a food safety certified employee on all shifts is more cumbersome at 24-hour restaurants such as Ken’s. If someone needs a day off or has a flat tire, it gets problematic.
“We have prep people here 24 hours a day,” Maiava said.
He said he will get his workers — perhaps all of them — certified, especially because new, young workers might not have the food safety knowledge he’d like them to have.
“It’s actually not a bad idea, that’s for sure,” he said.
Oshiro said restaurant workers will take an American National Standards Institute-recognized online course to get certified at a cost of about $10-$15. Many vendors offer the food safety certification course, he said.
In 2014, the DOH implemented a placard program for inspections. Under the placard program, food outlets are given a green, yellow or red placard, and are required to post them in a visible location at their entrances.
The color-coded placards indicate whether an establishment passed its health inspection, received a conditional pass or was closed because of permit suspension. Restaurants are fined if placards are not posted.
In Honolulu, Oshiro said, about a third of restaurants had multiple major violations before the placard system started. Now, fewer than 20 percent do.
This certification dovetails with the placards, he said, and the long-term goal to increase food safety.
Maiava likes the state’s goals.
“The better you handle food, the better off you are,” said Maiava, speaking for one of the most iconic and busiest restaurants in Hilo.
To give Hawaii restaurants time to comply, food safety inspectors will delay checking for worker food safety certificates until Sept. 2, 2018.
Other new DOH rules include:
• Giving health inspectors the authority to post red “CLOSED” signs “at restaurants operating without a valid permit” and when investigating patron complaints, not just during scheduled inspections.
• Potential denial of permit renewals for restaurants with unpaid fines overdue 30 days or more.
• A requirement of Department of Health approval before Wild-harvested mushrooms can be sold.
• Exemptions for residential child and adult day cares and bed-and-breakfasts, under certain conditions.
• Exemptions for unhazardous homemade foods, such as those pre-packaged.
• Requirement to use a state-approved facility for temporary food establishments (mobile food providers).
Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
