Hawaii food safety site still not up to par after 8 months

WAIKIKI (KHON2) -- State officials told KHON2 in April that their online database to search a restaurant's inspection history would be back up and running by July, but the system is still down and thousands of reissued permits are backlogged.

Restaurant inspection reports have not been viewable through the Food and Safety Branch website since January, but restaurateurs said they are still being conducted.

"Nothing has changed with that," Kuhio Ave Food Hall owner Mike Palmer said. "They're still doing their due diligence as far as restaurant inspections and making sure that everything is healthy for the public. We've had two inspections already this year, it's just the posting on the website, I think that software, there's issues with it."

That software is actually being switched out and the Department of Health said it is transitioning to a different IT system under a new contract.
The old contract ended and the site stop functioning at the end of 2023, which is something the House Health Committee is not happy about.

"The fact that we're in August now and it's still not available, that's a problem." Rep. Diamond Garcia said. "It needs to get done. And our office will definitely work with the heads of DOH to make sure it gets done."

The Hawaii Restaurant Association said the green, yellow and red placards on the front of all restaurants should still be current, but the Food Establishment Permit posted inside might not be -- thousands are backlogged due to the technical headache.

"Over 2,500," HRA executive director Sheryl Matsuoka said. "They will not issue any kind of fines or penalties and they will not be charged because of the process that they're going through right now with updating their computer systems."

Information on health inspections is still not searchable online and KHON2 asked Rep. Garcia if there has been any communication from the DOH with the House Health Committee since January, 2024.

"Our office has received nothing from the health, from the health department directly, nor have we received any information on this from the health committee," Rep. Garcia said. "It seems like there's just no will to really get this done in a speedy manner."

The Department of Health apologized for the inconvenience in a statement on the website and told KHON2 that they now expect everything to be back up and running by early fall.