A highly publicized rat problem at a Chinatown market is again highlighting the shortage of state food safety inspectors — whose O'ahu ranks have dwindled from 23 in 1988 to nine today — and one state senator called the problem a serious public health concern.

State Sen. David Ige, D-16th (Pearl City, 'Aiea), chairman of the Health Committee, said there is an immediate public health need to beef up the number of inspectors charged with overseeing about 5,700 food establishments on O'ahu.

And he added that the rat problem in Chinatown's Kekaulike Market may not have gotten quite so bad if there were more inspectors.

"You cannot eliminate the problem," he said, "but clearly you would have been able to see signs of a problem before it got to the point where it is today."

The food inspector staffing concerns aren't new, but the number of inspectors reached a new low this year with the departure of three inspectors from the Health Department's sanitation branch amid a state hiring freeze.

The Health Department, meanwhile, says it is doing the best it can with the resources it has available.

Short staffing at the sanitation branch means there are about 633 food establishments per inspector on O'ahu, and that most establishments can expect a routine inspection once every 30 months or so, according to the DOH.

The number of food establishments to inspectors on O'ahu is more than four times higher than what is recommended by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Industry guidelines also recommend establishments be inspected at least annually — and up to four times a year for higher-risk establishments.

High-risk establishments include those that handle food that must be reheated or food that is prepared hot and stored for hours until it is eaten.

Peter Oshiro, supervisor for the standards office in the state Health Department's sanitation branch, said the only high-risk establishments on O'ahu inspected yearly are school cafeterias. Otherwise, he said, inspectors largely respond to complaints and do comparatively little on-site prevention.

"It's crisis management," he said.

E. COLI OUTBREAK

An example of that came last year, when Sekiya's Restaurant in Kaimukí closed its doors for days and dumped all its food after an E. coli outbreak, which sickened seven. At the time, Oshiro warned: "We're not inspecting restaurants at the frequency we need to be. That's why we get these problems."

Given the state's worsening budget crunch and a host of other Health Department priorities, it's doubtful there will be relief for inspectors anytime soon. The department said that in the meantime it is doing what it can with what it has.

The department also said more inspectors alone won't solve everything.

"Any regulatory and public health program would like to have more staff," said Laurence Lau, the department's deputy director of environmental health. "We would do more if we had more. We're just going to do the best we can."

The sanitation branch does try to prevent potential hazards at establishments with its voluntary food handler program, which certified 514 people in the fiscal year that ended June 30. The department also conducts food safety workshops.

Food handlers are not required to go through such programs, however.

"We are trying to avoid problems by training people," Lau said.

He added that the existing inspectors do "make a difference."

And he also said even if DOH had more inspectors, they still couldn't be "everywhere all the time" to prevent problems. "The first responsibility remains with the restaurant and the food seller to sell safe food," Lau said.

The number of sanitation inspectors on O'ahu has been hovering between 12 and 14 for the last five years.

But the number dropped further this year, when three inspectors left.

Those positions could not be filled because of a state hiring freeze, and barring a legislative appropriation it's unclear when the state's financial crisis will ease up enough for DOH to be able to hire more sanitation inspectors.

Ige, the state senator, said despite the tough economic times, he would support a Health Department budget request in the upcoming session for more inspectors. He said the department has not submitted such a request in the past and that without it the money would likely not be released by the governor.

Lau, though, pointed out the DOH has a host of public health priority programs, all of which are competing for a piece of a shrinking pie. "There are a lot of important Health Department functions," Lau said.

RAT VIDEO

The discussion comes as Chinatown is trying to recover from a black eye in the form of a well-watched video, shot at night on the eve of Thanksgiving by blogger and political watchdog Larry Geller, that shows rats crawling out from under tarps covering bananas and other fresh produce at Pacing's Market, one of several vendors at Kekaulike.

The video sparked a DOH inspection of Pacing's, which was cited for a violation.

This week, the department will also go stall-to-stall at Kekaulike Market to talk to vendors about proper food safety and storage, and issue violations if any problems are noted. In the wake of the video, DOH has also partnered with the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to educate vendors in their own languages.

The Geller rat video has been seen by tens of thousands of people, and has spurred some to stop coming to Chinatown, according to shop owners, who say business has decreased — by 30 to 50 percent or more — over the last weeks.

Just one state sanitation inspector oversees food establishments in Chinatown and Downtown. The other eight take equally daunting chunks of the island, said Oshiro, adding that the Neighbor Islands aren't as short-staffed.

There is a need for more inspectors in Maui County, where there are about 374 establishments for every food inspector. But Hawai'i and Kaua'i meet or nearly meet the FDA guidelines for the number of inspectors to establishments.

A report to the state Legislature this year said O'ahu would need 14 more inspectors to reach its "optimum inspection frequency," and Maui would need three more. Those figures were based on O'ahu having 12 inspectors.

Oshiro pointed out that the inspectors also have other duties. In addition to overseeing food establishments, they conduct inspections of public swimming pools, tattoo parlors, mortuaries, salons and other regulated industries.

Those inspections are largely done in response to complaints.

Lynne Matusow, of the Downtown Neighborhood Board, said vendors at Kekaulike Market "would have needed a lot more oversight" to follow food safety regulations, but also said the rat problem has been in Chinatown for years so concentrating on one market likely won't do much in the way of tackling it.

DOH said there are no immediate plans to inspect other Chinatown markets for rats or other pests.

State Rep. Karl Rhoads, D-28th (Pälama, Downtown, Lower Makiki), said more inspectors wouldn't have solved the rodent problem in Chinatown. But he said with more inspectors, vendors would have likely been following better food safety practices, such as keeping food in containers, not under tarps.

"The best practices would have likely been enforced," he said.