Virtual Audits - Understanding the Issue of Video Capture

 At the IAFP Annual Meeting this past week, an interesting session was held on remote or virtual audits.  While there is agreement that virtual audits are here to stay, at least for certain aspects of an audit, the presenters discussed the limitations of such an audit.  One of the most important was that an auditor will not have true view of the situation within a facility.  But for the company being audited, one important issue is video capture, or taking a video of an operation and sending it to the auditor.  This is what they term video capture.

The issue with video capture is that once it is sent out, the processor loses control of that video and that it can exist forever on someone else's file.   One downside of this is that the audit may never end.  That is, some can review a video again and again, studying it to a much higher degree than possible during an in-person audit.

Before a virtual audit, it is important to review best practice for audits. (Food Safety Magazine, May 21)  One of these is to insist on only using live video with no recording.  Along with this, all shared documents should state 'confidential commercial information'.