Food safety"Printing" food with plant DNA to prevent counterfeiting
Branded foods from the waters off Japan are becoming popular in Asia; the growing popularity has lured counterfeiters into the market, where they sell common foods as the high-value brand, in the process destroying markets and reputation of the real item
Applied DNA Sciences (APDN) said that Japanese printing company Nissha Printing will use APDN technology to protect the brands of fish and other products which recently became victims of counterfeiting. The new printing system uses “DNA ink,” derived from plant DNA, to mark and authenticate labels on high-value fish and other food products.
Nissha signed an exclusive agreement with APDN on 31 October, becoming the sole provider of DNA ink products in publications and foods (fish and fruit) in Asia.
Using the new printing system, foods can be instantly verified as genuine in the field, using a special hand-held detector to identify the anti-counterfeiting ink. This could happen at the point of sale, or at any point along the supply chain. As is typical of APDN DNA markers, a second, forensic level of authentication is also available by sending the suspect product to a secure lab.
APDN notes that the system is entirely safe and non-invasive, and that foods are not altered.
Branded foods from the waters off Japan are becoming popular in Asia. The growing popularity has lured counterfeiters into the market, where they sell common foods as the high-value brand, in the process destroying markets and reputation of the real item.
Nissha said it views DNA protection of food as just the beginning. “No product is safe from the threat of counterfeiting, and this threatens public health and safety, especially in relation to food and other consumer products,” commented Takao Hashimoto, director and CTO of Nissha.
The new system, developed by Nissha in conjunction with APDN, can also package a variety of products with its high security layer. The anti-counterfeiting DNA ink on labels can be delivered by various printing technologies, such as offset printing, gravure printing, and ink jet printing
