Meat + Poultry - September 2005 - 52

Hot zone focus
T

he latest development in remote
monitoring technology targets
food safety while addressing
biosecurity issues. Throughout the
supply chain, from farm to fork, the
need for blanket protection of the food
supply against bioterrorism is being
addressed using new prevention methods to assess and identify risks using
video technology.
The critical control points in the
supply chain are identified by ADT's
latest Remote Video Auditing system,
known as Hot Zones. Hot Zones is
a practical solution that increases
food defense at those areas in the
food system infrastructure that are
the most vulnerable to a bioterrorist
attack. Monitoring starts at the farm
and continues as livestock are transported to feedyards and throughout
the slaughtering and processing plant.
Having established the efficiency of
RVA systems at the processing plant
level, the next logical step was to offer
upstream monitoring, where a single
act of contamination could infiltrate a
large amount of food inventory.
"A significant amount of meat could
be contaminated with strategically
placed pathogens that cause foodborne
illness," says Dr. Russell Cross, deputy
vice chancellor of agriculture at Texas
A&M Univ.
RVA with Hot Zones delivers extra
safeguards that are integrated with a
plant's employee background checks,
including security access restrictions,
biometric readers and Web-based video
monitoring. Hot Zones adds 24-7 oversight at the most critical points in their
operation. RVA and Hot Zones biosecurity protection can be installed with
minimal disruption to daily operations.
RVA involves the installation of
cameras that monitor the production
process. Video images are stored on a
digital video recorder at the plant and
monitored on the Internet, allowing
third-party auditors and plant manag-

ers to oversee critical control points in
real time. The system can be accessed
from anywhere in the world using secure Internet service.
Auditors review video associated
with a procedure, process or alarm
event. Each of these procedures is
monitored for best practices and better
operations. Daily, weekly and monthly
audit reports are generated, containing
Web hyper-links to video and still images providing visual documentation
of events captured by the auditors.
Weekly email scorecards, reviewed by
auditors with plant management, summarize a location's performance.
"Remote Video Auditing with Hot
Zones serves many purposes and satisfies numerous requirements," says Adam
Aronson, C.E.O. of New York-based
Arrowsight, Inc., developer and provider of RVA services. "Food defense is
every food company's first priority, but
RVA also helps to improve productivity
and employee efficiency, resulting in
improved yields and profits."
Plumrose USA, East Brunswick,
N.J., a prominent manufacturer of
processed meats, uses RVA at its plant
in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It is currently

in the process of installing Hot Zones
bioterrorism protection. "Food safety
and security are our competitive
advantages. Remote Video Auditing
has enabled us to make improvements
to specific areas in the processing
chain," says Mike Rozzano, Plumrose
USA's general manager. "We have
found that their certified audit reports
improve staff morale and give us more
ammunition for the marketing department. RVA gives us the data to prove
that our plants are exceeding U.S.D.A.
regulations."
Plumrose officials attribute RVA
technology for greater returns on investment, because monitoring production
has yielded measurable improvements
and efficiencies throughout the plant.
Follow the data
The proof is in the numbers. RVA delivers vast amounts of operational data,
rapidly enabling new and ever-higher
benchmarks for an industry that needs
them to grow and prosper. Hot Zones
gives plants protection from bioterrorism by reducing risks and ensuring biosecurity safeguards, and policies are
monitored and met, 24 hours a day.

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September 2005

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Meat + Poultry - September 2005

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