 My name is Cheryl Matsuoka, the Executive Director of the Hawaii Restaurant Association and the Hawaii Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Mahalo for joining me here today on Restaurants of Hawaii on the ThinkTech platform. Changes within our Department of Health, the Food Safety Branch focus on a lot of different topics for restaurants and eateries is what we'll be discussing today from dogs and restaurants, allergens and notifications on how they're displayed. And the great news are permitting costs will not increase. This may be the one only cost increasing this year, Peter Oshiro. So today I'd like to have my guests introduce themselves. But first, I want to introduce my dear friend, Peter Oshiro, with the Department of Health Environmental Health, Health Program Manager, Food Safety Branch. He's going to explain all the revisions and how they will affect both restaurants, eateries and their guests. So Peter, please introduce yourself, share with our members and viewers a little bit about your background and what you do over there at the Food Safety Branch. Wow, good afternoon, everybody. I'm really happy to be here. The Department of Health is always, especially my program, outreach is really, really important. It's much better to have communication, clear communication as to what we're trying to achieve here as a regulatory agency and especially how that's going to affect both the public and regulated industry. So we really appreciate this opportunity. I've been with the department for like 35 years now. I've been program manager for the last 11 or 12. And yeah, I've been with the same program my whole career there. So I do have a vested interest in making sure that this program is run the way it's supposed to be able to run. So I'm good comment about the fee thing. I really apologize. I was told by my accountant that the fund was going to be short in FY25. And then literally after I talked to you folks and I spoke with Cheryl, they were going to have to jacket guys' fees. I was told that there was a major accounting error on the order of seven figures. So the fund is stable. So we're OK. We don't have to re-expease on you this year anyway. But do keep in mind that the fee last time we did increase, it was over 10 years ago. So you know, government agencies kind of wait and wait. And all of a sudden, it's $1,000 a year from 300. Yeah, we promise not to do. Well, I promise not to do that to you folks unless my administrators have some other ideas about how to use your permit fee money. So we're OK. But thanks for having me. Thank you. Thank you so much, Peter. And, you know, I just want to acknowledge Peter or Cheryl, you know, during the pandemic, Peter, we always had a great relationship. You know, Peter ever needs anything to be sent out. Information to our restaurants and eateries. He knows he can always send it to me and I send it out to everyone so that we can keep those lines of communication. Peter and I have always had an excellent, excellent relationship. But during the pandemic, Peter, he was on speed dial on my phone. What we can do, right, to start reopening those eateries restaurants. So I just want to thank you for the relationship, Peter, and always being so willing to take my calls and all my questions. No problem. Yeah, it is transparency. That's the key for any government program. Yeah, so we believe in total transparency. Thank you. Thank you so much. Now I'd like to have Tom Jones. Please introduce yourself. Tom Jones is with has been how many decades, Tom? We're in Hawaii or with the rest of the station? Just in your love time, Tom Jones. I moved to Hawaii in 1986 from Tokyo after spending a couple of years over there training as a sushi chef. And I've been in Hawaii ever since I've been. I work for Kyoto restaurants and also with the Colombian restaurants in the past. I've been on the board of directors for the Hawaii Restaurant Association for about 30 years, maybe 20, 30 years. And and I own the go to Japanese restaurants. And I just wanted to also have a shout out to Peter. I think back in, I can't remember when when Cathy Matsunaga was our executive director of the Restaurant Association and the Health Department ran up new regulations. You know, they included the Restaurant Association. I was involved in some of those, you know, reviews of the, you know, the new regulations and the State Department of Health has always been very, very business friendly and work with the restaurants to make sure that we're able to understand what the regulations are and get educated to, you know, to comply with them. So shout out to the State Department of Health, always helpful. Bang. Thank you, Tom. And to our dear friend, Peter Bilisario. I'm going to be calling in Peter B. Today, because we've got Peter's on the show. Peter Bilisario is my food safety guy. Every time I have something questions about food safety, it's Peter B, who is my go to guy. So Peter B, please share with our members and subscribers a little bit about your background and how you're the food safety guy. Yes, thank you, Cheryl. Me and my family, we moved here from New York about 10 years ago. And well, first of all, we love it here. And I have developed working in the food safety end. Of restaurants and I had my own business of providing food safety audits to restaurants. And currently I've been here at Dio Tani. It's going to be about four years now as the food safety manager. I love working here and I really feel that we are part of the chain of providing safe food to our restaurants. And also, I do want to say thank you very much to Peter Oshiro and his department. The Department of Health has always been great partners, not only with the restaurant association, but with restaurants and making sure that we provide safe food for all of our guests here in Hawaii. Thank you. I really appreciate that. Thanks. Thank you, Peter B. So the first question is to Peter Oshiro. I understand that the Department of Health is planning to amend HR Chapter 50, the Food Safety Code. Can you please share with our members and subscribers your views on the changes? Yeah, so what all that started with was back in 2009, 2010, we decided to adopt a national food code model to pattern our regulatory, I guess, administrative rule after. I guess it's really important for the industry that everybody's on the playing, playing on the same field. And as you know, food establishment regulations are over four or five hundred different jurisdictions nationwide. And we're lucky that we're under state control. Most states, the regulations are under county control. So even if the state passes a regulation or adopts the national model, they don't have to actually abide by it. Each county will probably make their own rules, set their own fees. And that creates some difficulty we realize for industry, especially for chains that have multiple locations in different states. So that's what we started to do back then, to make sure we had a national food code that was recognized. We are on the two thousand and thirteen code right now. We miss adopting the two thousand and seventeen and the two thousand and twenty one food code was delayed publishing due to covid and we are now on the twenty twenty two food code. There was a big rush about a month ago that we would have to do this quickly because of financial implications. But now that we don't, we're going to take a more relaxed approach and make sure that we get all the input we need from you guys because there is no financial pressure to do this anymore right away. But we do need to catch up to the twenty two food code as that is the most current scientific thought on how to regulate food establishment. So we do for sure want to go ahead and do that. So that's actually the basic premise on why we're changing or we plan to change our administrative rule. If you folks know we cannot any time we change administrative rules, we do not have to go through the legislature, but we do have to go through a public hearings process. And at the public hearings, all affected people and the public make comments and we take all those comments into play. We actually have to respond to all comments. And if the governor feels that we have responded to everything and our rule is in the best interest of the state, he goes ahead and signs it. So that's how the process works. Yeah. So if you guys have any questions about that, I can answer that. But that's basically what the impetus is for changing the rule. Peter, Tom, you don't have any questions. I'm going to go through the first, which is the major food allergen. Peter, I'm going to go through that. The number two is going to be the reduced oxygen packaging. And then we'll go on to all the other topics. But do you have any questions to Peter or sure regarding the changes and how it how it actually happens? Yeah, I do. I was just kind of curious, what what is the time frame that we're looking at in terms of, you know, and, you know, adopting them. And then, you know, how we're going to educate the the restaurant industry about the changes. Yeah. So I was going to push it up to summer, but we're probably going to push it back to fall, winter this year. So what that means is that between then and the actual public hearing, which we'll probably want to hold in later on at the end of the year, we're going to have to have a lot of informative meetings with you folks. We don't even have a draft yet. So that's the first thing is we'll put together the draft of what it looks like exactly when we adopt the National Food Code. And basically, we adopt verbatim almost word for word. And the only things that we differ from the food code are things like our placard program, our fees, those things are not a national standard. But the rule itself is that that's typically what we'll adopt. There is on legislation, sometimes the legislator tries to jump our rule. A lot of times we object to the legislature passing law because we already have a public hearings process to change our rules and regulations. And we feel that that's worked very well as you folks, when things go through the legislature, when you originally proposed the monster that comes out in the end and gets passed, typically may not even resemble what you originally tried to push through. So we always ask the legislature to defer to us. So there are bills right now to allow dogs in restaurants, which is allowed in the new 2022 food code under certain conditions and only outdoor dining, not indoor dining. So there is a bill that's being introduced to do that. And I don't have to try to circumvent us, but we will testify generally in favor if they follow the food code. And we are also going to have to create guidelines as to actually how we're going to enforce that and what that means and who's responsible for having that situation now. But basically, that's for the dogs in restaurant things that we're not opposed to it right now. We were in strict opposition every year and we're on the record as saying as soon as the FDA says that they're going to allow it, then we will also adopt it. So the FDA in 2021-22, they finally did adopted in the food code under certain conditions that doesn't force anybody to do it. It's just an option. If the restaurant owner would like to do it, then we were going to set up guidelines under how they can achieve that. Thank you. Thank you so much, Peter. So anything else on dogs and restaurants? I'm going to I'm going to move on then about the allergens. So Peter or Cheryl, do you want to touch a little bit about the allergens? Yeah, so what this is is this is a rule that's been passed in a food code that's very similar to your consumer advisory for eating raw or undercooked foods. It's going to be the exact same idea. So what the food code says now is you have an obligation to notify your customers in your restaurant or food establishment operations if you use any of the now nine major allergens. And real briefly, it's a milk, eggs, fish, crustacean, shellfish, peanuts, peanuts, wheat or soy and now sesame, which is everything you guys use in your folks restaurant. I'll say 90 percent of the restaurants now use one or a combination of nearly all of these items. So the only it's going to be kind of ridiculous. Again, this is what happens in people pass these kind of bills. It was intended for only people that use specifically these things, but now they apply it to everybody. So what you guys are going to end up do is simply putting on your menu that statement again that my establishment may use any of these specific nine items in your food business. So just beware if you have a strict allergy, please don't eat here for all any of those items. If you folks absolutely want to say that I have none of these things, then you guys are free to do that and inform the customers that I don't use any allergies in my food here at your restaurant or whatever, and then you guys are free to do that also. But if you use any of them, you don't have to list which menu items you're using it for. You just have to make a blanket statement that your establishment has any of these nine allergens in your facility and the public needs to be aware of that. And really, that's about it. So you can put it on the menu board. You can put it on the menu itself. You can put it on some kind of stanchion that a plaque that says, we serve these allergens here beware. And that's the extent of the requirement. Sounds very reasonable. Yeah, and we again, because we have not adopted the rule yet, it's not a law yet. So just if it does become a law, I don't foresee that this I may be wrong, but we don't consider that this might be on the level like a code holding violation or a contamination violation, but I'll check to see if this will affect the placard or not, whether you have that warning, whether the Fed views that as a critical violation that would affect something like the placarding. And I also recommend that allergen notifications would be on the website where people order things online. That would probably be a requirement also. And we probably need to remind people about the raw and undercooked items, because I don't think everybody does that also. I see pretty much almost nearly 100% compliance on the brick and mortar restaurants that are there as they serve it. So everybody has been very accustomed to it already. So I don't think it's going to be an issue for enforcement. And Peter Belisario, you had a question about the ninth major allergen. Steve. Well, yeah, sesame is pretty much straightforward, but does that also include sesame oil? I know that sesame oils can have different levels of refinement or hardly refined sesame oils. Would that be safe? No, anything at all. Anything that contains the word sesame is going to be an allergen and need to be declared. Yeah, interesting. Thank you. OK, so if we don't have any more questions about dogs and restaurants or allergens, I wanted to go down to the next topic, which is Hiroshiro, your current website is down, right? And you're switching to Enumeth Ender. Can I just go back real quickly to the dogs and restaurant thing? Because I think two of the main things everybody struggles with and we get asked constantly and is what can the establishment ask of the person with the animal? And again, we don't make the rules on this. This is all from the Department of Justice and the ADA American Disabilities Act. So and we do not enforce that either at the Department of Health. So the two questions that you can ask or what you're supposed to be asking if someone comes into your facility with a dog and you don't allow it is, is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? And two, what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Now, be very clear that you cannot ask the person what the disability is, nor can you ask the dog the owner to prove, show me what the dog can do to do it. But if they refuse to answer those two questions, you can absolutely restrict them from entering your establishment. So that's kind of where it is. So if they just tell you a story about it, you got to believe it. And that's pretty much what the law says right now about quote unquote allowing service animals into your facility. Yeah, emotional, I guess, is not recognized that an emotional need. It has to be some kind of trained action that the dog was specifically trained to do to help the disabled person. Peter, can I ask you a question about that? Yeah. So if someone were to bring a dog into a restaurant right in their pocketbook or in a little basket or whatever, but not but not disclose that when they came in and then, you know, 20 minutes into their meal, you realize that there's a, you know, a chihuahua in their handbag. Is that a violation of the law? You know, we won't if you didn't know about it and my staff walked right by and didn't see the dog either. You know, we're very reasonable people, again, and all of our violations because this is not critical to public health. Nobody's going to die because of it. We will always give you a warning and say, oh, look, we noticed that you have an animal in a bag sitting on a person's lap. Obviously, it's not a service animal. And we're just going to put the onus on you. We're going to mark it as a violation that you have pet animals in your establishment now. What would the restaurant manager on duty's recourse be, though, to tell those folks? I mean, if we became aware of it halfway through the meal. We can leave the establishment. So that's very difficult for you folks, but you can order them out of the establishment. Now, are we allowed to let them stay there or do we have to tell them to leave right now? Now that if you were to let them stay, now everything goes back to the original question, right? Is that a service animal? And so if it's not, if it's not a legitimate service animal, right, should we ask them that they by law that they would have to leave the restaurant? Yes. OK, that's important for us. No, because we have this problem pretty routinely in our. I'm sure we get complaints all the time. It's not useful. It's Costco. It's fan club. It's, you know, not only the restaurant. We have tons of Starbucks that have outdoor dining areas. We even have food establishments on websites that actually stay and go ahead. We're pet friendly. Bring your animals here. We have not. Right. And the only thing we've gotten from our AG is that we have to see it. We can we have to take the pictures of it. If you send me a picture of it, I can verify time, date, or that's the AI generated photo nowadays. But yeah, we have to actually physically see the violation to market and we will send an inspector out. So again, here's real life. We get the call. Oh, Starbucks so-and-so is allowing dogs in their facility. Can you please check it out? So we'll get there within 24 to 48 hours, right? And then we're going to ask, we're not going to see the dog. And we're just going to remind the establishment, please. Don't let dogs in your establishment. And that's it. Yeah. Thank you. Yes, until Peter Oshiro. Is it fair to say then that the restaurant tour can create a script for their hostess, host, late staff? Exactly. Right. And what would those words be to the person who's walking in with their Chihuahua in their living room? So I'll send you a document that was actually written in 2014 and it's still valid then. It was signed by myself and the program manager of the Disabled Communication Access Disability and Communication Access Board through the Department of Justice. So we have basically exactly what you can and cannot ask. So I will make sure I send that document to you. Thank you because, Tom, that would be so helpful for us to... Absolutely. Yeah. We don't want to break the law or offend anyone, but we want to make sure we're compliant. Exactly. And that's all we're going to be saying. You know, maybe the person who's bringing in the Chihuahua isn't aware that we can get in trouble as a restaurant tour. Yeah. You know, just following the law. And that's all I would present it. Right, Tom? Correct. Correct. Nice. Nice. Eventually, when pets would be allowed, they would only be allowed on an outside linai, correct? Correct. That's the current allowance from the FDA that would only outdoor dining areas. It's interesting that they're specifically talking about dogs when there's so many other types of pets. I know. People might want to bring in... They don't want to open that door. So does that say cats? Does that say birds? Right. It seems discriminatory. Yes, it is. It certainly is. All right. So we've got five more minutes for the show. And I just want to talk about the new vendor, Peter Oshiro. Yeah. That's really important about our new IT vendor. We apologize that we got actually back in November, December, we put it out for bid. The contract expired in December of last year with the current vendor, DHD Tyler Tech. The new vendor, we have to go through a procurement process because it's over $100,000. We have to go to a silent bid. We pick the vendor. The vendor is having issues dealing with the bureaucracy and getting it approved, which is causing the delay. This new vendor, I can't name them. But again, what it's supposed to do is we're going to start going full on into credit card or acceptance of plastic for payments for fees. And that's really, really critical because on our end, accepting personal checks is such a headache. And you guys probably don't accept personal checks anymore because of that from your customers. But we are still locked in the 1950s and the department does not have a centralized way to accept plastic. So we need to find a vendor that actually can do it and clear all the credit cards. So this vendor that we're looking at has the ability to do that. So we will soon be venturing into that arena. So that would make it easier for everybody. Even walk-in payments, people that are doing special event permits, we'll have a point of sale terminal, same thing like any other restaurant to accept a credit card for payment. And we will stop actually accepting checks at that point in time now, because of a profit and cost. So we'll be only cash and credit plastic. But yeah, we really apologize for that. And they're connected to the public website. So that is down to, but anybody can access any of this, it has not stopped any of our inspections. We still do it. We're back to paper and pen. So we will get you a copy of their report. And we just have to scan it and send it out. So that's where we are now. Thank you. So as I wind down the show, I just wanna ask Peter Balasario, do you have any final questions for Peter Osher? Yes, when the new regulations come out with the new food code, what is the communication that you will be getting to all the restaurants? Most restaurants are very proactive about making sure they have the up-to-date information, but some do not. How would you be getting out the information to all the different restaurants? Yeah, good question. So we start with you folks. We start with the industry trade group. So typically before I passed any legislation way back when we introduced the placard system and the huge increase in fees, I made sure I met with the executive boards of Hawaii Restaurant Association, Hawaii Food Manufacturers, Hawaii Food Industry, Hawaii Hotel and Lodging, make sure everybody was on board before we even went to public hearings. So our public hearings were a ghost town, which is what we actually want, where all the questions have been answered and there's nothing controversial being jumped on people. So that's typically how we're gonna do it. We're gonna go through the trade organizations. By law, we have to take out a publication in the paper announcing that we are holding public hearings, but by then that's too late. So we really try to work through you folks first to get the word out. And I will attend any meetings, anywhere, any time to explain what we're trying to do. That's never an issue with us. Thank you. Tom Jones, any questions for Peter Oshiro before we close the show? No, I think you did a really great job of explaining all of these things. And again, the Hawaii State Health Department, and I've worked in many states around the country is always very inclusive. I guess it's the Aloha spirit here or whatever, but they do a good job of reaching out and trying to make sure that we're compliant as opposed to going around and inspecting us and giving us a hard time. So really appreciate that. It benefits the businesses and I think it also in the long-term benefits to general public. So kudos to the health department. No, and the law goes both ways. Other states have such a difficult time working with their restaurant associations. And I'm so thankful that we do not. So my life is very easy dealing with some industry here. And I think we have a pretty good record of public health if I'm not mistaken. Very, it's actually, again, I can go over that another meeting, but as far as how many violations, the reduction in violations that we've seen over the past seven years has been tremendous. And that's all basically restaurant and you folks cooperate, industry cooperating with us and all trying to protect public health. So we're very happy with the program and you folks. And that's especially challenging in Hawaii with that we are probably the most ethnically diverse community in the country. And we have all kinds of food, including raw foods and things like that, hokey, everywhere, all these things. And I think we do a really, really good job. So I think it's a tribute to both sides of the health department and the industry. Definitely. So Peter O'Sharrow, any final statements before we close the show? No, just thanks for having me here. And it is about communication and transparency and then that will solve most of our problems here in the world if we can do both. Thank you. So I'd like to really thank my guests for being here on Restaurants of Hawaii and the ThinkTech platform. The Hawaii Restaurant Association is the organization unifying, representing and supporting the Hawaii restaurant and food service industry. And remember, nourish connections, save your life, eat well, and live well. We'll see you at our next show.