Ag Department seeks relief from egg inspection mandate

You could call Howard Kamimoto a crack egg inspector.

Actually, he is one of three state food inspectors who devote a lot of their time checking to see if chicken eggs from the mainland are properly marked as to their origin.

There’s a problem, though. These required marks — “US” stamped in small type on the shells of individual eggs — are supposed to be checked by the state Department of Agriculture before imported eggs can be removed from a local shipping dock or other landing point and delivered to stores for retail sale.

That’s a lot of checks — about 150 every month to sample 400,000 cases containing about 30 dozen eggs each.

So the agency is seeking some relief from its duty by asking the Legislature to amend a law that dates to 1931 and was enacted to protect local egg producers from unscrupulous competitors who might try to package mainland eggs in cartons advertising Hawaii eggs that can sell for more than twice as much.

At the time the requirement was instituted, all eggs sold in Hawaii were locally produced. Now 80 percent are from the mainland, and the inspection protocol is unwarranted, said Jeri Kahana, quality assurance division administrator for the department.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “It’s too cumbersome.”

Kahana said her three food inspectors have more important duties that include checking food for health safety and quality. The law that mandates checking the origin of eggs before they are released for retail sale also requires issuing written certificates that take up the inspectors’ time, she said.

The department is asking lawmakers to pass House Bill 775, which would allow inspectors to check for egg-origin markings in retail stores as they do for other food, including fruit, vegetables and seafood.

“The department recognizes the importance of the requirement that imported eggs being individually marked as to origin to differentiate it from locally produced eggs in order to protect our fragile local egg industry,” Scott Enright, the department’s director, said in written testimony. “The proposed amendments will not affect the department’s authority and ability to enforce mislabeled or unmarked imported eggs as to origin.”

Chad Buck, CEO of Hawaii Foodservice Alliance, a company that distributes local and mainland eggs to retailers, said in written testimony that all mainland eggs his company receives are already certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a process that requires his company and the egg supplier to submit certificates to the state Department of Agriculture.

“The current requirement for the (state) Department of Agriculture to issue another, separate certification before these eggs can be sold, once received in Hawaii, is a duplication of work,” he said.

Currently, the state Department of Agriculture isn’t following the letter of the law because it doesn’t inspect eggs before they leave shipping docks. Kahana said that’s because opening shipping containers and packages of eggs in the middle of a busy shipping terminal would be dangerous and require heavy equipment. So inspectors check eggs after distributors receive them and before they go to retail stores.

On Friday, Kamimoto visited Hawaii Foodservice to check a small load of free-range eggs from The Happy Egg Co. headed for Safeway. Because the shipment contained no more than 10 cases, he had to open only a few cases and look at 100 eggs, but he often had to lift them out of their carton and twirl them around to spot a faint pink stamp on brown shells.

Bigger shipments require bigger samples, such as checking 500 eggs out of 300 cases and 800 eggs out of 600 cases.

Kahana said that sometimes inspections are delayed, and that can have a negative impact on the perishable food. If mainland eggs are found without stamps, they can be used for commercial food production, perhaps by a bakery or restaurant. Unmarked mainland eggs also can be donated to food banks.

On store shelves, local eggs command a premium. At Foodland Farms, a dozen local large cage-free brown eggs from Shaka Moa Eggs cost $8.89 compared with $6.09 for the same from the mainland. A package of 18 extra-large Hawaiian Made eggs cost $9.99 compared with $6.39 for a mainland brand. In other cases, local eggs can cost more than twice as much as mainland varieties.

Debra Shimabukuro, who runs Hawaii’s largest egg producer and also distributes mainland eggs, said in written testimony that it’s vital to protect the local egg industry from individuals who would attempt to pass off unmarked mainland eggs as being from Hawaii, but the state Department of Agriculture can do this without issuing certificates before eggs can be delivered to stores.

Shimabukuro, president of Eggs Hawaii Inc. — a subsidiary of Hawaiian Egg Co., which does business as Mikilua Poultry Farm — supports the bill.

Christopher Peterson of Peterson’s Upland Farm in Wahiawa also supports the bill but asked in his written testimony that additional protections be added to the bill. In response, the House Committee on Consumer Protection amended the bill to make selling unmarked mainland eggs a deceptive trade practice subject to stiffer penalties under state law.

Peterson said the number of commercial Hawaii egg producers has dropped to four from 21 in the 1980s as farmers have struggled with high feed costs, increased safety regulations and the lack of a poultry processing facility. Therefore, he said, identifying mainland eggs remains important.

“The stamp on imported eggs is essential for consumers to be able to easily differentiate local and mainland eggs,” he said.

The bill, which the House passed earlier this month, was advanced further by the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Environment Wednesday and now awaits consideration by the Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee.