Hawaii Hospitality - May/June 2014 - (Page 8)

Are You Inspection Ready? New food safety requirements call for eateries to post placards alerting diners to possible health hazards. Inspections start soon. BY DAVID PUTNAM T he Islands' fine-dining restaurants, popular bistros, fast-food chains and onolicious lunchwagons share a common bond in 2014: adjusting to major changes in Hawaii's food safety regulations. The new codes affect the spectrum of the food service industry, from food handling techniques to cooking temperatures to preventing foodborne illnesses. Chefs, cooks, pantry workers, waithelp, stewards, dishwashers and owners and managers shouldn't panic: Food safety training is available to eateries large and small. The Department of Health (DOH) offers free training and certification. However, should the DOH's workshop dates not fit well with the work schedules of some food service employees, training also is available at TOBE Co. Food Safety. TOBE Co., the only public provider of food safety training in Hawaii, offers ServSafe 8 Hawaii Hospitality May/June 2014 ■ training, a food safety certification program administered by the National Restaurant Association and accredited by the American National Standards Institute and the Conference for Food Protection. Tom Frigge, president of the Kaneohe-based TOBE Co., says some Hawaii restaurants are "going to be GETTING UP TO CODE * To schedule a food safety audit or register for training with TOBE Co., call (808) 235-0797 or visit tobecofoodsafety.com. * The DOH scheduled free food safety training and certiﬁcation workshops on May 6 and 7, as well as "fastpaced" one-day workshops on June 10, 12, 17 and 19 on Oahu. For more information, call Dennis Loo at (808) 586-8012. DOH workshops also are offered on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island; call John Nakashima at (808) 933-0931. really surprised" when inspectors from the DOH's Sanitation Branch begin handing out the new color-coded placards in June. The 8½- by 11-inch placards will be green (pass), yellow (conditional pass) and red (closure) under the Chapter 50 guidelines (replacing Chapter 12) of Hawaii's updated food code, effective Feb. 24. "We will be visiting all 10,000plus food facilities statewide with a 'How To Get A Green Placard' PR campaign. The food facilities will each be given a folder with all the necessary info and tools to get the green placard," says Peter Oshiro, the DOH's environmental health program manager for Sanitation/Food and Drug/Vector Control. Oshiro says the DOH has 25 field staff for Oahu's 6,000-plus food facilities. Once all instructional folders have been handed out, he says the inspectors will visit at least five facilities a day to "coach them on our new rules http://www.tobecofoodsafety.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Hawaii Hospitality - May/June 2014

News Briefs
Are You Inspection Ready?
Lanai: Small Island, Big Aloha
Great Restaurants: W Bistro
Talk Story with George Szigeti
Small-scale Sustainability
Out of Sight, Not out of Mind
Food & Beverage SuperStars
Taking the Lead: Sales & Marketing
Jaclyn Loo of Google Inc.
Clean Talk
Association News

Hawaii Hospitality - May/June 2014