The CEO of the Tourist Centers, Benjamín Perdomo, has assured that with the analyses carried out in the Monumento al Campesino restaurant, after the confirmation from Health of the existence of food poisoning that affected 39 people, he can confirm that the restaurant “was not the cause.”
He stated this on Radio Lanzarote – Onda Cero, where he also acknowledged that he is still waiting to receive the epidemiological study that clarifies what caused the discomfort of those affected. However, the CEO was very critical of the “bashing” that he says the Centers have received, particularly from Coalición Canaria, “without even having the analyses yet.”
“It is not right that a party that led the Tourist Centers to losses of 4 million euros in the restaurant business now comes out to bash the workers of the Centers and that those who wanted to privatize the restaurant business now come out beating their chests saying that there is food poisoning in the Monumento al Campesino,” the CEO criticizes.
In addition, he also questions Health, as he says that they “focused” on the Monumento al Campesino without having the results of the studies carried out. “This has never been done, Health has never come out to say that it is one establishment or another without having analyses and epidemiological studies. Never, except with the monument, because since we are public it seems that nothing happens and there is no need to be cautious or concerned,” Perdomo adds.
The CEO emphasizes the “astonishment” he felt after the first statement from Coalición Canaria pointing to the Monumento al Campesino as the origin of food poisoning. “I think we have to start being a little cautious when doing these things, and wait to have the analyses to say such a thing,” Perdomo points out.
“We had an analysis the day after that dinner and it said that everything was correct”
Despite the astonishment shown by the CEO of the Tourist Centers, he did assure that they were “very calm” and convinced that the poisoning had not been generated in the Monumento al Campesino.
“We were always very calm, because we have an external company that audits us every month. They go through the kitchens, take random products and analyze them, and also see the surface of the centers to see if there is dirt or not,” he details.
In addition, the CEO has assured that they carried out an analysis “the day after that dinner”, and that the results said “that everything was correct”. “Possibly, the Monumento al Campesino, Jameos and Timanfaya, are among the best sanitary kitchens that exist by far, I have no doubt,” he defended.
Likewise, Benjamín Perdomo points out that they knew that there were nurses who did not attend the lunch on May 12, where it was supposedly said that the poisoning had occurred, "because they already had symptoms”, which would demonstrate that the origin of the pathology of the 39 affected did not begin in the Monumento al Campesino.
“One thing impacted us, and that is that normally when you have poisoning like this, with the pathogen that was being studied, you immediately go to the bathroom after 4 hours or 6 hours, never after 24 or 48. That can cause salmonellosis or something like that, but with poisoning like this you go to the bathroom immediately,” says Benjamín Perdomo, who assures that at that time there were several stomach rotaviruses on the island that affected many people, even himself a week before the alleged poisoning in the Monumento al Campesino.
The news affected the Centers' restaurant business “a great deal”
Perdomo has also lamented that the news of the possible food poisoning in the Monumento al Campesino affected the Tourist Centers' restaurant business “a great deal”.
“It was a blow,” Perdomo pointed out, although he acknowledges that little by little people have been losing their fear and returning to the restaurants of the Tourist Centers. He even added that the last weekend was “very good”, on the occasion of Canary Islands Day.
“With the alarm you create, you sink any self-employed person. I remember poisonings in restaurants that were not even named and caution was taken until the correct data was available to be able to say that it was them,” adds the CEO.
