The Genki Sushi restaurant in Lahaina discarded about 21 pounds of raw scallops Monday night after discovering the seafood was likely linked to the recent hepatitis A outbreak at the chain’s Oahu locations, state Department of Health officials said Tuesday.
The popular sushi chain was ordered to close its 10 restaurants on Oahu and one on Kauai, said Peter Oshiro, state Department of Health sanitation branch chief, Tuesday. The restaurants must dispose of their food supplies and disposable items, like cups and napkins, and disinfect the facilities before they reopen.
There are two Genki Sushi locations on Maui, though the Maui Mall location has been closed since July while undergoing renovations. The Lahaina restaurant will not be shut down, and health officials will not be conducting further tests, Health Department Communications Director Janice Okubo said via email Tuesday.
Chad Quemado, front of house supervisor of the Lahaina store, said Tuesday that restaurant officials immediately threw away all scallops-related products when they got wind of the possible connection to the hepatitis A outbreak. He said the scallops were discarded at the direction of their corporate office.
“The Health Department has been working hard to get that situation under control,” Quemado said. “We threw away anything that was opened or may have been contaminated, and anything touched by it. If bags were still in the box, still wrapped up and unopened, we believe it is safe.”
The restaurant will not be serving any scallop dishes, Quemado said.
The restaurant has been getting calls from concerned customers, and it was “notifying them of the situation if they have not heard about it,” he said.
“We are assuring them that Oahu and Kauai are dealing with this, while the rest of us are still safe,” Quemado said.
The department said Monday night that imported frozen scallops served raw at the restaurants were the likely source of the outbreak, which has sickened 168 people as of last Wednesday. The disease can cause fever, loss of appetite, nausea and other ailments.
Health Department officials ordered an embargo of all frozen scallop products distributed by Koha Oriental Foods and True World Foods in Hawaii. An embargo restricts the use, sale or distribution of the product.
True World recently began distributing to Maui and the Big Island, though the department confirmed that the questionable scallops were not sent to those islands, Okubo said. She said inspectors were able to stop the product at the company’s warehouse on Oahu before it was distributed.
Koha Oriental supplied scallops to the Genki Sushi Oahu and Kauai restaurants, and the product of concern was the Sea Port Bay Scallops (Wild Harvest, Raw Frozen) that originated in the Philippines, Okubo said.
Maui County District Health Officer Dr. Lorrin Pang said health officials arrived at the Lahaina Genki Sushi around 11:45 a.m. Tuesday to embargo any frozen scallops linked to the outbreak. He said three boxes of scallops from True World, weighing 7 pounds each, already had been thrown away so they could not be tested.
Oshiro praised Genki Sushi for being a “good partner” in its investigation into the source of the outbreak. He said the company hasn’t tried to hide any information and showed authorities invoices and distribution records.
The company immediately complied with the department’s order, said Mary Hansen, Genki Sushi USA chief administrative officer.
“We continue to work with the Department of Health to ensure we’re in compliance so we can reopen our restaurants as soon as possible,” she said.
Genki Sushi is known for having patrons select their sushi items by taking them off a conveyor belt that moves around tables and counters.
The state Health Department first announced the hepatitis A outbreak on July 1, but it struggled to identify the source because of the disease’s long 50-day incubation period. It’s been difficult for those infected to remember everything they had eaten and all the people they had contact with during that time, Health Department officials said.
Dr. Sarah Park, the state’s epidemiologist, said one key piece of information in the hunt for the cause of the outbreak was that 70 percent of those infected had eaten at Genki Sushi. She said Health Department officials didn’t get a response like that for any other restaurant, food chain or grocery store.
Park said the Health Department has notified other U.S. health agencies so doctors around the country can consider travel history to Hawaii if their patients report hepatitis A symptoms.
* The Associated Press contributed to this report.
* Chris Sugidono can be reached at csugidono@mauinews.com.
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