State Department of Health officials said a Waipahu food production plant was shut down because of a failure to do the required testing of products for acidity, an indicator of whether conditions are ripe for botulism.

The Department of Health issued a product recall Tuesday, listing all of about 150 products on First Commercial Kitchen LLC’s website, and shut down its production plant after it failed to show it had done the required tests.

Several client companies have their products made at First Commercial and they were also subject to the recall.

Peter Kam, managing partner of First Commercial Kitchen, said yesterday: "We always do testing when we first take on a product, but the Health Department is coming up with upgraded testing procedures for me that we’ll review tomorrow."

When asked whether First Commercial, which may have produced more than 150 products such as dressings and sauces since 1999, ever tested its products for pH levels, Kam said: "That part gets a little bit complicated. We will wait until the Health Department tells me what they want me to do."

Kam said he gave the department a list of current clients yesterday afternoon and is complying with all its requests.

The department is recalling all products produced at the plant for the past three years, which may still have yet to be eaten.

Department officials said inspections are done annually.

Deputy Director for Environmental Health Gary Gill said that previous inspections did not flag the problems.

Peter Oshiro, acting Sanitation Branch program manager, said, "There has not been any reliable testing" at First Commercial, and Kam could not produce any records showing lot numbers and required testing on every batch produced that is called "shelf stable," meaning no refrigeration is required.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, during a routine inspection, found First Commercial failed to test its products and failed to produce any records showing it had.

FDA tested samples of two products — Barb’s Local Style Black Bean Sauce and Ohana Flavors Black Bean Sauce, and found unsafe pH levels, which could lead to growth of a bacterium that causes botulism, a form of food poisoning that may cause illness or death.

The products, distributed on Oahu and Molokai, were voluntarily recalled Jan. 19. Consumers were warned not to use the product even if it does not look or smell spoiled. Consumers may call the company at 676-0880 for more information.

The department said no illnesses have been reported in connection with these products, which were not contaminated with the bacterium.

Local business owners were outraged when they found their food products on the recall list, believing they were unjustly given a black eye in a blanket recall of products First Commercial produced.

"How do you restore our good name?" said Dan Kaslow, part-owner of Da Kine Hawaiian Products, which sends its sauces, dressings and syrups to California for testing. "And you gave us no warning," he said about the department.

Some company representatives said they hadn’t done business with First Commercial in years.

Gill defended his decision to recall all the products listed on the company’s website since Kam failed to provide a current list of clients and their products after having several days to do so. "It’s not our intention to be a burden to small business here," he said at a news conference yesterday.

Gill made the decision to release the entire list in the name of public health and, in the alternative, said the media would have questioned why all the companies hadn’t been named. He implied the move prompted Kam to comply by providing a current list, and said it would not have been in the public’s interest to delay even by one more day.