The facilities of the Iberostar Hotel in Costa Calero hosted on Tuesday the first conference on "Hygienic-sanitary control as a guarantee of responsible tourism", with which the tourism association Asolan, together with the firm Bialoc, wanted to contribute to the "training and improvement" of the managers, middle managers and workers of the tourism sector in health safety and food quality.
The event was attended by prominent speakers and specialists in the field, as well as managers of the main tour operators on the Island. Manuel Concepción, as secretary of the board of directors of Asolan, opened the conference and highlighted in his speech, "the vital importance" of the implementation of health control in the hotels of the Island, not only "because of the demand of tour operators", but also because of "the responsibility of offering a guaranteed service to customers". The manager of the tourism association, Rita Martín and Obel Castañeda Díaz, managing director of Biolab Siete Mares, accompanied Manuel Concepción at the opening ceremony.
Standardization in health control
The content of the program was developed in four presentations. The first one referred to the "HACCP System", offered by Castañeda himself; a second one on "The sanitary surveillance of drinking water in the Canary Islands", by Adolfo Chávez Almora; this was followed by a talk referred to the "Traceability Plan in Hospitality", given by Marta Delgado Pérez, consultant of Biolab, and a last conference on "The sanitary control in the Buffet". To conclude the session, it ended with a debate on the topics addressed during the morning session.
Among the topics discussed, the new European directives on health control of food and water, an issue that Obel Castañeda considers crucial because "the new trend in Europe is the standardization in health safety and in the guarantee of food offered in hotel establishments". A "necessary" regularization according to Castañeda, due to the "rapid transformation" that community legislation has experienced in recent years.