We went to eat at a popular restaurant in Kapahulu. When my daughter's dish arrived, she saw a worm crawling on a flower petal mixed with the dish. The waitress told us it was because the flower is organic. I called the Health Department and an inspector told me that the restaurant told him the flowers came from an outer island. The flowers are washed, but they can't be sure if the flowers are totally free of worms. I told the inspector the restaurant should not put flowers in the food. He said this was an unreasonable request, adding that this is only one incident. I thought public health offices are supposed to be on the consumer's side, and I think to have one worm crawling on your plate is one too much. Is this unreasonable? One worm does not
a health scare makeThe state Department of Health did find your request to be unreasonable, but the explanation may give you cause to reconsider.
The restaurant was reprimanded to have staff wash produce and floral garnishes more carefully, said Brian Choy, chief of the sanitation branch.
It wasn't as if worms were constantly being found in the restaurant's food, he said.
Such complaints "come up every so often" at different restaurants, Choy said. "It's not an unknown."
He sympathizes that finding a worm on your plate is not exactly palate-pleasing. But consider that "we're telling growers not to use pesticides on their products," Choy said. Finding a worm actually shows "that the food was not sprayed with pesticides."
People should be more concerned about the things they cannot see, he said.
"People always complain about roaches. But in truth, rarely would they cause you to get sick. . . . You may psychologically throw up, but the other cause (unseen organisms) can make you physically throw up," Choy said.
That's why health inspectors are looking at refocusing their concerns to critical-inspection items and not so much "on things people can see," he said.
"It's part of a nationwide refocusing of limited resources on the things that can really cause you to get sick," such as preventing cross-contamination of food (raw products touching cooked products); requiring hand-washing as frequently as possible; and monitoring temperature-control, he said.
We had a power outage in Makakilo recently when a car knocked down a utility pole. The resulting surge damaged my computer, even though I had a surge protector. My neighbors also had equipment and appliances damaged. One neighbor called Hawaiian Electric, who said he should seek compensation from the driver and her insurer. Is that how these cases are handled? Yes, said Heco spokesman Fred Kobashikawa, who added that liability lies with the responsible party.
"We get a police report to identify the person involved," he said.
Hawaiian Electric then makes a claim for repair costs and provides the name of the person and insurer to customers who also may have suffered damage to sensitive equipment.
"We have been doing this for a long time as company policy," Kobashikawa said. Public Utilities Commission tariff guidelines spell this out.
The alternative is to absorb the costs, then pass them on to customers, he said.
"We try to help customers by advising them ahead of time of the quality of power needed for sensitive equipment," he said, such as in a consumer newsletter and on Heco's web page: http://www.hei.com.
Mahalo
To Roy and Janice, who found my wallet on the beach in Laie over the Fourth of July weekend and drove all the way to my house in Aina Haina to return it, refusing any reward. -- M.N.
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