Australian food exporters get new anti-counterfeit technology

Australian food companies now have the opportunity to protect their products through a sophisticated two-part anti-counterfeiting system.

Developed by Adelaide-based Beston Global Food Company, the system, which was introduced in February, has now been opened up to other Australian exporters.

Around 300 products are protected by the system, of which 60 are Beston products – such as dairy, seafood, meat and nutritional health products – and 240 are from other companies. About 80 per cent of the companies using the technology have had previous counterfeiting issues.

"This is top-end technology; it is extremely sophisticated and even the process of application we only do here in Australia to make sure the loop is closed," Beston Global Food Company chief technology officer Al Jawhari told InDaily.

"There are other fingerprint spectrum technologies that can be applied but they can be counterfeited and that's the critical part. We are in a leading position with this platform."

The two-part anti-counterfeiting system works firstly with Brandlok, a spectrum fingerprint technology developed by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation and commercialised by DataDot Technology. This is embedded in the product's seal and works in a similar way to how counterfeit currency is prevented.

The second part is Oziris, a patent-pending app-enabled tracing system, which can trace the origin of individual product ingredients including batch, use-by dates, shipping dates and manufacturing details.

The system works by using a mobile app, available in English and Mandarin, to scan the seal sticker to ensure authenticity, while scanning the QR code brings up information about the product, its ingredients and its producers.

The system is available in China, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, with plans to be available in Hong Kong and South Korea by the end of the year. Use of the technology also allows access to Beston's overseas distribution channels and e-commerce platform.

The company said there was no other technology as sophisticated as this available to Australian food exporters.

"Our customers need to have 100 per cent peace of mind. We're providing the traceability and anti-counterfeiting technology as well as the e-commerce, the B2B and B2C all in the one platform. So the offering is amazing for small to medium producers who have unique products but who don't have the platform that enables them to export, which is an extreme challenge," Jawhari said.

According to the company, Oziris combined with Brandlok will eliminate counterfeit products from the food industry.

"It is clear to us that consumer concerns about food safety and authenticity will become an even bigger issue in the future, as global demand for food continues to outstrip supply," said Roger Sexton, Beston executive chairman.

The new technology was a "comprehensive and compelling" solution to consumer fears about counterfeits, he said.

"This is going to be the leading platform to protect Australian products overseas," Jawhari added.

The Oziris software can be downloaded from the Australian App Store or Google Play.