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The state Department of Health has fined Paalaa Kai Bakery in Waialua for allegedly selling baked goods after it received a red “closed” placard for food safety violations.
Inspectors issued the placard and ordered the bakery, 66-945 Kaukonahua Road, closed Oct. 6 due to temperature violations. But the next day, the bakery allegedly opened and sold baked products, according to Peter Oshiro, manager of the Health Department’s Sanitation Branch.
Oshiro said the department received a call in the afternoon from a resident who lives in a unit above Paalaa Kai Mini-Mart that a “crowd of people were inside and outside of the bakery” that morning.
The caller said people had left the store with bags of baked goods. The front door, he said, was also propped open with a line of people waiting outside. Inspectors interviewed the caller, who signed a sworn statement.
Paul Sakai, who manages the bakery, could not be reached for comment.
Alex Burroughs, store manager of a minimart next to the bakery, said he saw a small group of employees leaving the store after a meeting, and no one was carrying baked products. A minimart employee who also worked at the bakery had attended the meeting.
Fines are $12,000 for temperature violations leading to the posting of the red placard and an additional $10,000 for the alleged sale of baked goods after it shut down, according to a news release.
The bakery may request a hearing to contest the fines. Meanwhile the temporary suspension of the bakery’s food permit will continue until violations are corrected and verified.