Tag Archives: Hawaii

Hawaii norovirus outbreak prompts scrubbing of restaurant

Posted on by
1

The Hawaiian Department of Health said a Hale­iwa restaurant linked to 42 cases of suspected norovirus in an outbreak on the North Shore has been scrubbed and is safe, but other eating establishments and food sources are still being investigated.

State Epidemiologist Sarah Park said the owners of Cholo’s Homestyle Mexican II voluntarily shut down the restaurant Tuesday afternoon to do a thorough cleaning and reopened Wednesday.

The restaurant disinfected all surfaces and utensils, under the health inspectors’ supervision, and disposed of a lot of food, she said.

The department tallied 42 suspected cases of norovirus as of yesterday afternoon. All of those sickened reported eating at Cholo’s.

Following testing, norovirus was positively identified in one.

In addition to investigating the restaurant, where workers also reported being ill, the Health Department had been looking at the possibility that the virus spread through food served Sunday at the Hale­iwa Metric Century Ride bicycling event on the North Shore. Some of that food came from Cholo’s.

Ride participant Brent Hama­saki, 40, of Kalihi, his son, 15, and father-in-law became sick Monday night.

"The only thing we had in common was we all had the fish taco plate, and we all had the salsa and the chips."

Botulism risk: Hawaii health dept, forces company to close, recall 3 years of product

Posted on by
Reply

The state health department has issued a recall for more than one hundred locally produced food products including jams, salad dressings, and sauces that were manufactured at a Waipio processing plant because of a risk for botulism.

The Health Department issued an Order to Cease and Desist, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found evidence of improper manufacturing standards at the First Commercial Kitchen plant.

A recall issued last Thursday only included two products: Ohana Flavors Black Bean Sauce and Barbs Local Style Black Bean Sauce.

But now, the recall includes everything that was manufactured there over the past three years.

The Health Department says it issued the mass recall after the company failed to produce required documentation and because of inadequate testing to ensure no bacteria growth.

A number of restaurants have responded to the recall, saying they haven’t done business with First Commercial Kitchen in years, and their names were incorrectly added to the recall list.
 

Hawaii restaurant linked to E. coli O157 outbreak

Posted on by
Reply

Honolulu restaurant Peppa’s Korean BBQ was ordered to close on Thursday after being linked to an outbreak of E. coli O157 in seven people.

Officials said four of the seven patients were hospitalized and one of them is still in a hospital.

The health department said Peppa’s has agreed to cooperate fully and will remain closed and work with the DOH on an intensive mitigation plan to correct permit violations. The restaurant’s management will be required to attend the Sanitation Branch’s Food Safety Certification Workshop to receive training on proper food-handling practices.

Seaweed, straight from the drainage ditch, leads to citation for Hawaiian Chinatown store

Posted on by
Reply

Ogonori, also called ogo or sea moss, is a type of edible seaweed eaten along the coasts of Japan, Southeast Asia, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. Ogonori is typically eaten cold and, for the up-and-coming microbiologists in the crowd who have spent hours autoclaving, ogo is a source of the thickener agar.

Apparently it’s easy to find – in Hawaii.

A seafood and produce store in Chinatown was cited by a Department of Health sanitarian Friday after a KHON2 report showed a man picking ogo from a drainage canal at Ala Moana Beach Park and then selling it to the owner of the business.

A Sanitation Branch inspector cited Cruzzette Store owner Felicidad Dela Cruz for purchasing ogo from an “unapproved source.”  Dela Cruz faced a fine of up to $1,000 a day had she continued to purchase ogo from the man captured on Thursday’s video by KHON2.

“She said that if somebody gonna get sick it will be my fault,” said Dela Cruz, as she described her conversation with the health inspector.

When asked what she had learned about food safety, Dela Cruz was quick to reply.

 “To know where my product (is) coming from and to be safe,” she said in broken English.  “I don’t want anybody get sick.”

2 in coma, 6 sick after eating slugs, snails in home-grown produce

Posted on by
4

Whenever there is an outbreak of Salmonella or E. coli in fresh produce like tomatoes or lettuce, I’m quick to stress that washing does little to remove dangerous microorganisms and that prevention on the farm is the first line of defense.

But I still wash produce. Like the tomato that some little kid may have emptied his nose on in the grocery aisle – a colleague talking about her sleepless nights notes how she’s drowning in a “sea of snot” from her kid – or been violated by norovirus-laden fingers from a promiscuous shopper, that’s why I wash tomatoes.

Yesterday the Hawaiian state Health Department urged Hawai’i residents to thoroughly wash home-grown vegetables and avoid eating uncooked slugs or snails after several Big Island residents contracted a rare form of meningitis, leaving two of the patients in comas, from accidentally eating tiny slugs on home-grown vegetables.

All contracted a rare form of meningitis — or infection of the spinal fluid — called eosinophilic meningitis or angiostrongyliasis. It is caused by the rat lung-worm parasite, or Angiostrongylus cantonensis, and is spread when snails and slugs eat parasite-infested rat dung and move onto vegetables, where they are eaten by humans.

Yesterday’s advisory by the state Department of Health comes in the wake of six probable cases of rat lung-worm in Hawai’i in 2008. All those who got sick were residents of the Big Island and regularly ate fresh raw vegetables from backyard gardens.

State epidemiologist Dr. Sarah Park said,

"We are in no way saying that vegetables are unsafe. I would advocate locally grown vegetables — just wash them."

Outbreak of salmonella leads to recall of ahi

Posted on by
Reply

Choyce Products of Hawaii voluntarily recalled 11,000 pounds of previously frozen yellowfin tuna yesterday that tested positive for salmonella.

The Hawaii Star-Bulletin reports that the state Department of Health has been investigating an outbreak of a rare strain of salmonella, Paratyphi B, confirmed in 33 cases since October but seen in only three cases last month.

The Health Department believes the illnesses are related to previously frozen ahi which was imported to Hawaii and eaten raw.

It is not yet clear if the salmonella strain found at Choyce’s is the Paratyphi B strain.

Edmund Choy, owner of Choyce Products, said,

"Our main concern is safety. We immediately issued a voluntary recall on that shipment and confirmed that our customers do not have any ahi from that parcel in our inventory."

Choyce is one of about 40 seafood distributors on Oahu.