Australian Company Develops Invisible Technology to Combat Food Fraud

An Australian com­pany called YPB Group has devel­oped an all-new anti-fraud tech­nol­ogy to assist local and inter­na­tional food prod­uct exporters in com­bat­ing sophis­ti­cated food coun­ter­feit­ers.

The invis­i­ble tracer tech­nol­ogy con­tains invis­i­ble par­ti­cles that can be mixed in paint, plas­tic and ink applied to caps, corks or labels – and even directly to food.

First devel­oped in 2015 with a vision of becom­ing a scal­able solu­tion pre­vent­ing coun­ter­feit­ers from copy­ing prod­ucts, the patented prod­uct can be embed­ded into almost any sub­strate used to pack­age or seal a prod­uct, and is based on inor­ganic, non-radioac­tive trace min­er­als that have been cer­ti­fied by the European, American and Chinese food and drug admin­is­tra­tions as safe for direct con­tact with food. It is already in use by busi­nesses in the Asia Pacific region to safe­guard every­thing from tax cer­tifi­cates to con­sumer goods and even phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals.

According to Jens Michel, CEO of YPB Group, the tech­nol­ogy can eas­ily be adopted by local and inter­na­tional olive oil farm­ers and pro­duc­ers, as ​“any prod­uct that requires pro­tec­tion or cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of authen­tic­ity would ben­e­fit from our tech­nol­ogy pro­tect­ing the brand’s integrity and decreas­ing the risk from coun­ter­feit.”

Using a spe­cific for­mu­la­tion, the tech­nol­ogy works by enabling illu­mi­na­tion in the invis­i­ble light spec­trum, ren­der­ing it invis­i­ble to the human eye. Specially equipped scan­ners can detect the product’s unique sig­na­ture and pro­vides an authen­ti­ca­tion response based on the tracer mate­r­ial.

Brands that opt to use the tech­nol­ogy in their prod­ucts or pack­ag­ing are pro­vided with spe­cial scan­ners so they can ver­ify prod­uct authen­tic­ity. YPB can either assist the brand from end to end with their prod­uct pack­ag­ing or inte­grate the solu­tion into the business’s exist­ing processes. They can also pro­vide unique and trace­able sig­na­tures spe­cific to cer­tain com­pa­nies and time peri­ods for added authen­ti­ca­tion.

Unlike other anti-fraud mea­sures, the tech­nol­ogy has been rec­og­nized by the China Trade Association for Anti-Counterfeiting (CTAAC) as the only invis­i­ble tracer com­pany in China – giv­ing it a major advan­tage over its com­peti­tors due to the increas­ing pop­u­lar­ity of Australian food imports.

Food safety and fraud are major con­cerns for both Chinese con­sumers and for Australia’s AUD45 bil­lion ($34 bil­lion) agri­cul­tural food export mar­ket. Research by PWC reveals that olive oil (in addi­tion to alco­hol and seafood) is one of Australia’s most coun­ter­feited prod­ucts and that the aver­age prod­uct pro­vides fraud­sters with over a 100 tam­per­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties dur­ing its jour­ney through the sup­ply chain.

A Pew Internet Research Survey revealed that over 70 per­cent of Chinese con­sumers have major con­cerns over the safety and authen­tic­ity of their food, with over 80 per­cent will­ing to pay extra for ver­i­fied prod­ucts.

• Weekly Times Now (Australia)


• Executive Interview — YPB Group