After issuing 15 cease-and-desist orders to illegal mobile food vendors Saturday around Oahu, the state Department of Health cited three illegal vendors Sunday and did not find any doing business Monday.
"It had to have been all the media attention that knocked it down that fast, and hopefully they’re smart enough to stay out," said Peter Oshiro, manager of the department’s Environmental Health Program.
Teams of food inspectors participated in a weekend and holiday sweep for the first time in at least seven years, Oshiro said. He said state budget cuts had not allowed for his employees to work weekend overtime hours to search for roadside food sellers operating without valid permits. The Abercrombie administration provided funding for this effort.
"Between 7:45 (a.m.) and 4:30 (p.m.) you’re not going to find anybody (selling) Monday through Friday because that’s when our people are in the field," Oshiro said Saturday. "After hours … they crop up all over because they know we don’t stop (them)."
Oshiro said he is pleased with the outcome of the weekend’s sweep and attributed it to the wide media coverage it received.
"To go from 15 to 3 to zero, I don’t think that’s a fluke," he said. "I think the message got out that we’re out there."
A three-person team covering the Windward and North Shore areas of the island Saturday issued five cease-and-desist orders, while a two-person team traveled west and handed out 10. Two teams covered similar areas Saturday and came across three illegal vendors. One inspector checked out the Kaneohe, Kahaluu, Waimanalo, Hawaii Kai, airport, Waipahu and Ewa areas Monday and found only permitted sellers.
Oshiro said inspectors found no vendors selling food who were previously instructed to shut down. Initial food permit violations could result in a daily $1,000 fine for the first offense.
Oshiro called the short-term results "amazing" and said that while the department plans to continue with periodic weekend and holiday sweeps, results from the first weekend suggest that workers will not need to go out as often as had been expected.
"We’ll go back out again in a couple weeks," he said. "Hopefully it stays down."
