News Releases from Department of Health

Honolulu – The Hawai‘i State Department of Health (DOH) conducted an investigation at Safeway #2944 located at 1234 S. Beretania St. due to a complaint regarding the presence of rodents in the food establishment’s bakery section.

The food establishment (FE), which is operated by Safeway, Inc., was aware of the complaint and had already hired Pest Control Operators (PCO) to treat the Safeway Bakery for the presence of rodents.  PCO visited the FE twice on Aug 6, 2023.

The DOH complaint inspection was conducted on August 7, 2023, by a DOH Food Safety Specialist and revealed the following:

• All baked goods exposed during the incident were discarded.
• The bakery case and the surrounding areas were cleaned and sanitized.
• No live rodents or evidence of rodent infestation (droppings, gnaw marks, etc.) were observed at the time of inspection.
• A hole in the back of the doughnut case was found by Safeway and has been temporarily repaired until a permanent fix can be done.
• The Pest Control Operators (PCO) has set traps in the interior and along the exterior perimeter of the building to reduce the rodent population.
• The PCO has been coming twice daily since the incident.
• Safeway was cited by the Department of Health (DOH) for having a few exposed areas surrounding pipes that enter the building from the exterior.    

DOH is requiring that the food establishment seal up all outer openings that lead into Safeway and to monitor rodent control activity closely. A follow-up inspection will be conducted on August 14, 2023, to ensure that all outer openings have been properly sealed.

About

The Hawai‘i State Department of Health (DOH) Food Safety Branch protects and promotes the health of Hawai‘i residents and visitors through education of food industry workers and regulation of food establishments statewide. The branch conducts routine health inspections of food establishments where food products are prepared, manufactured, distributed, or sold.

For more information on the department’s placarding program go to http://health.hawaii.gov/san/

To view restaurant inspection reports, go to http://hi.healthinspections.us/hawaii/.