Restaurants’ health inspection statuses go public

Restaurant patrons can find out the results of a restaurant’s health inspection in real time under a new color-coded grading system the state Department of Health started this week.

Once an establishment has been reviewed, health inspectors will place a green, yellow or red placard on the outside wall that is easily visible to patrons.

"One thing it will do is it will increase transparency so that the public (will be) informed of the status on a restaurant in a very simple green is good, yellow is caution and red means the restaurant is closed," said Gary Gill, deputy director for environmental health. "Hopefully, it will inspire greater responsiveness and responsibility on the part of the restaurant owners to take care of any problems that they may have."

Previously, patrons had to call the department to find out the status of an establishment’s inspection.

A Green placard, considered a "pass," indicates that no more than one critical violation must be corrected at the time of inspection. Yellow is a "conditional pass," with two or more critical violations that need to be fixed. A red card will be issued when an establishment is to close immediately due to an imminent health hazard to the community.

By mid-Wednesday DOH sanitarians had inspected 23 establishments and issued 16 green and seven yellow placards, said Peter Oshiro, environmental health program manager for the DOH’s Sanitation Branch.

He said the system creates social pressure for facilities that don’t get a green card to quickly correct their violations.

"Instead of us having to chase the industry … they’ll chase us as demanding to get reinspected because everything is being corrected," Oshiro said.

"The whole reason why we’re doing all this is to reduce all the foodborne illness risk factors — these are the major violations," he said.

Nathan Okinaka, director of operations for So Ono Food Products LLC and treasurer for the Hawaii Food Manufacturers Association, said the placards will focus more attention on food safety.

"I think it’s a lot more transparent for all estab- lishments to put upfront, you know, what they’ve done, what they’re doing to ensure consumer food safety," he said.

The placard system — part of the state’s new "Food Safety Code" that Gov. Neil Abercrombie signed into law earlier this year — is based on Sacramento County’s award-winning environmental health program.

About two years ago some establishments would be inspected every couple of years due to a shortage of inspectors. Now the department employs 40 inspectors statewide with up to 10 more to be hired by the fall, and inspections will get underway based on the level of risk for foodborne illnesses involving food handling and preparation procedures.

A full-service establishment that has up to eight preparation procedures — receiving, cold storage, hot storage, thermal processing, transportation, cooling, reheating and display — has the highest risk level and is considered a category 1 establishment. Regular inspections of such establishments will be conducted three times a year.

Establishments with three to five preparation procedures, such as fast-food restaurants, will be inspected twice a year as category 2 establishments. Category 3 establishments with up to two procedures will be inspected once a year.