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The Honolulu company that makes Hula Brand noodles, shrimp flakes and other dry edibles has violated food safety standards with unsanitary equipment and insect droppings at its plant, the Food and Drug Administration says.
The violations were detailed in an FDA warning letter to Aaron A. Rutledge, president of Modern Macaroni Co. Ltd., dated Feb. 23, from Darla Bracy, FDA’s acting district director in San Francisco, recently posted on the federal agency’s website.
On Monday, Rutledge said he has dealt with most of the problems, including termite droppings, and will update the FDA with more details. The federal agency inspected the company’s Kalihi plant Dec. 6 and found various violations. It said the company’s Dec. 26 written response was inadequate.
The Hula Brand, which dates back decades, features a hula dancer in a ti-leaf skirt as its trademark. Rutledge bought the company’s name, brand and equipment Nov. 28, attracted in part by the logo he’d seen growing up.
“I kind of inherited the problem,” he said. Asked how much he paid for the company, he responded with a chuckle, “Too much.”
Hula Brand products include dry noodles known as udon, saimin, somen and chow fun, as well as hana ebi (colorful shrimp flakes used in sushi), turbinado sugar, mochi rice and powdered kinako, mochiko and potato starch.
Violations listed in the warning letter included:
>> “Apparent insect excrement, too numerous to count” on wooden shelves in the downstairs processing room.
>> Water for hand-washing that had a yellow tinge and wasn’t the right temperature.
>> Wooden racks and dowels used for making dried udon and somen that were “in disrepair, worn and not easily cleanable.”
>> No Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan for its shrimp flakes.
>> Shrimp residue and apparent insect excrement on wooden shelves in the shrimp drying room.
The company has cleaned up the insect droppings and has a regular pest control service, Rutledge said. It has replaced some termite-damaged wooden shelves with metal shelving.
“It was mostly termite droppings,” Rutledge told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “I haven’t seen any cockroaches in the building. We have a monthly pest control where they spray. I don’t know how effective it is on the termites. We just kind of replaced what was damaged. We don’t own the building; we just lease it.”
The sink water is now clear, Rutledge said, and a plumber will come later this week to make sure the water is hot enough to meet hygiene standards.
Employees have encased the company’s wooden racks and dowels with plastic to ensure easy cleaning.
“We have a food-grade laminate liner that we have covered it with,” he said. “They (FDA) didn’t like the noodles actually touching the wood surface. We found a way to correct that.”
“I think everything has been corrected that they’ve asked for except the HACCP plan,” he added.
He said the previous owner was supposed to develop a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan for its shrimp products but never did so. An earlier warning letter on the FDA website dated September 2014 faults the company, then owned and run by Darrell E. Siu, for violations including lacking a hazard plan.
In its current warning letter, FDA said Modern Macaroni needs to do more to exclude pests and prevent contamination. It also said the hazard analysis plan covering its shrimp flakes will ensure consumers are not exposed to undeclared allergens from shellfish and food additives.
Rutledge said he was considering substituting another product or taking a class to learn to produce such a plan.
The company has seven employees, some of whom have been working there since the 1980s, Rutledge said. He believes it was founded in 1959.
In the warning letter, FDA said it could take strong measures if violations are not promptly corrected, including seizing products or shutting down operations. The company has 15 working days to respond to the letter.
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