- Local businesses outraged by recall
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A recall involving food manufacturer First Commercial Kitchen has outraged many local entrepreneurs.
The Department of Health shut down the Waipahu business Tuesday after recent inspections raised fears of possible botulism contamination.
However many of the more than 130 products mentioned on the DOH press release are no longer processed by First Commercial Kitchen, owned and operated by Peter Kam.
“It came as a major shock,” said Dan Kaslow, whose company Da Kine Enterprises was listed as one of the businesses affected by the recall.
“We were not expecting to have this type of thing fall into our lap without any kind of notice from anybody.”
Kaslow says Da Kine’s BBQ sauces, salad dressings and syrups have been processed in California since sometime last year.
Deputy State Health Director Gary Gill said in a press conference Wednesday DOH had no choice but to recall the products found on First Commercial Kitchen’s website in the interest of public health.
Botulism is a potentially fatal form of food poisoning that can cause weakness, double-vision as well as trouble speaking or swallowing.
“If it’s out there in the community and it came from First Commercial Kitchen in the past three years we are going to retain our request or our issuance of a recall,” said Gill.
After a meeting with Kam at the Department of Health Sanitation Branch offices on
Ala Moana Boulevard, the First Commercial Kitchen owner was ordered to provide a more accurate list of the companies he still conducts business with.
Kam refused to answer reporters’ questions when walking to his car, saying only he needed “to get busy on some things.”
Tuesday evening Kam issued a press release that blasted the DOH for acting prematurely.
“This blanket recall implies that all products from my clients are an ‘immediate and substantial hazard to the public health’, and unjustly tarnishes the good name and reputation of many innocent parties, without any evidence at all,” said Kam.
“Thus, I feel this recall was a premature action taken by our State Department of Health which may result in severe economic consequences.”
Local chef Peter Merriman echoed the sentiments in Kam’s press release. His company’s products were also listed as being part of the recall.
“Merriman’s has not used First Commercial Kitchen LLC in over ten years to produce our sauces,” Merriman told Khon2.
“In our memory, we’ve only used them once. I’m very disappointed to see that the Department of Health is publishing this information which misrepresents our company as well as to Maui Jelly Factory, the current manufacturer of our sauces.”
Gill stated DOH would work as efficiently as possible to remove companies from the recall list that could prove they haven’t had their products processed by First Commercial Kitchen the past three years or could provide accurate food quality test results.
“The more we can narrow down that list to the products that are of real concern, we are motivated to do that,” said Gill.
However Jill Lee, the owner of Honolulu Gourmet Foods, was puzzled as to why DOH did not contact her directly before placing her company’s salad dressings on the recall list.
Lee says health inspectors recently visited the Waialua facility where her products have been manufactured the past three years.
“I actually had a health inspector inspect us at the Waialua facility that we work out of and they watched us actually make our product and we passed,” she said.
Local attorney Michael Nauyokas told Khon2 businesses that experience a drop in sales as a result of the DOH recall would have grounds for a lawsuit if it reached that point.
“I would be defamation and interfering with commerce,” said Nauyokas.
Kaslow told Khon2 his company had already hired an attorney.
“If necessary we will do what we need to do to get our name cleared and to take care of those who put us in this position,” he said.
Gill could not provide an exact date but said health inspectors who had examined the First Commercial Kitchen processing plant in Waipahu the past year or so had failed to raise any red flags.–
“It’s just a fair fact to say that the previous inspections of First Commercial Kitchen by Department of Health staff did not flag the problems that we have in front of us today,” he said.
The shut down of First Commercial Kitchen initially began January 20 as a voluntary product recall of Ohana Flavors Black Bean Sauce and Barbs Black Bean Sauce.
The Department of Health has no reports of anyone becoming ill as a result of consuming either of the two products.
However Sanitation Acting Program Manager Peter Oshiro said DOH was alarmed by the lack of food quality testing done by Kam at First Commercial Kitchen’s Waipahu processing plant.
“Not only was there no records,” said Oshiro, “his testing equipment and his calibration of the testing equipment procedures were not existent.
“Any tests that he did for the last six years since 2005 or 2006 are meaningless.”
Gill said DOH would allow Kam to reopen his business only after he could prove food quality testing would be performed according to state and federal standards and that he could provide any documentation requested by the department.
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