Cargill is piloting a third-party remote video auditing (RVA) program as a food-safety tool in its North American beef plants. Already using RVA to monitor animal-welfare practices at its 10 beef-harvest facilities in North America, Cargill decided to extend the RVA technology to monitor food-safety practices and is piloting the project at beef facilities in Fresno, CA, and Milwaukee, WI.

Arrowsight, Inc. of Mount Kisco, NY, provides the technology in collaboration with ADT Security Services of Boca Raton, FL. By watching near real-time video, Arrowsight's third-party auditors monitor how consistently employees perform their work and provide constructive statistical feedback to plant management.

For the food-safety pilot, RVA will be used to review the stages in the process where workers clean and sanitize their knives and other pieces of equipment. Cargill also will apply the technology to monitor dressing procedures to ensure proper techniques are followed to reduce the potential for E.coli and Salmonella contamination.