“Fake medicines kill almost 500,000 sub-Saharan Africans a year: UNODC report”- United Nations report- 2023
“Ferrari program asks customers to rat out counterfeit cars, t-shirts and hats” – CNN 2024
In a world where counterfeit products can compromise safety and trust, consumers are increasingly seeking assurance about the authenticity of the items they purchase. Traceability has emerged as a vital tool in this quest, offering the promise of transparency throughout the supply chain. But can consumers truly rely on traceability alone to guarantee authenticity?
Traceability refers to the ability to track and verify the history, location and movement of a product through various stages of production, distribution and selling points. It’s commonly used in various fields such as manufacturing, supply chain management and food safety.
The implementation of a traceability program serves several objectives among which:
– Quality assurance: ensure products meet safety and quality standards.
– Safety: Identification of products to manage recalls or contaminations issues.
– Regulatory standards: product must follow standards to enter in specific market
– Supply chain transparency: Allows consumers to understand where the products are coming from.
– Inventory/ Stock management: streamline operations for better inventory management.
– Fraud and diversion prevention: can help to detect counterfeit products, monitor supply chain integrity, enhance visibility, prevent grey market activities, and in some cases inform the consumers.
A physical product can be made traceable at the item level by implementing a Unique Identifier (UI), which is affixed to the product. Scanning these Identifiers at various points in the supply chain allows to create a virtual map (a trace) of their previous locations and status.
The UI typically comes in the form of:
– Alphanumeric Codes: a sequence of letters and numbers, allowing for a wide range of possible combinations.
– Barcodes (1D and 2D): Barcodes, from the simple linear ones to QR-codes and DataMatrix, can store a higher amount of data, i.e. information about the product. Barcodes can be directly marked on a product or packaging or printed on a label.
– RFID tags: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags can provide real-time tracking and can store more information than traditional barcodes. They enable automated tracking without the need for line-of-sight scanning, enhancing efficiency in inventory management. Tags can be integrated discreetly into products and read using dedicated smartphone applications through NFC reader. As they don’t require line-of-sight to be read, they can be inserted inside a product or product packaging.
One of the major challenges in traceability is effectively capturing and recording data in a systematic and robust manner. It involves gathering and maintaining detailed records of the product’s journey, including production information, quality control, shipping, and handling.
In other words, when setting up a traceability system, it is essential to equip and establish guidelines with all stakeholders for using data acquisition tools to document the platform effectively. Consistent and reliable data is crucial to a traceability platform as all information extracted from such data is only as good and reliable as its sources.
In essence, traceability can be a powerful tool that fosters transparency in supply chain activities, from raw material sourcing to production control and up to consumer’s purchasing habits. For industries and governments, it ensures compliance with internal processes or external regulations, it may signal or prevent anomalies, and it ultimately provides a wealth of information to improve efficiency. It may also empower consumers with knowledge about the origins and production of their products, building trust and enabling informed choices, all the while enhancing brand reputation and loyalty. Ultimately, traceability contributes to a more ethical and responsible market, benefiting all stakeholders.
But is traceability sufficient to ensure trust in the products we buy?
While item-level Identification enhances the level of information we can have on the products, the most common adopted technologies have vulnerabilities and limitations once it comes to authentications:
– Barcodes & serial numbers
-> Lack of security: they can be easily replicated and copied for replication on a counterfeit product with no need to decrypt/encrypt the information
-> Scanning errors: Barcodes and serials require line of sight to work, which can represent an important challenge in reading the codes. In addition damages to the code or poor scanning conditions can lead to misidentification.
-> No embedded authentication: barcodes are usually not secured and using open-source technologies.
-> Limited data: Barcodes data capacity is limited to the size of the code itself which is then limited by the available real estate on the product and by aesthetics criteria.
– RFID Tags:
-> Security Concerns: depending on the type of electronic chip and its implementation, low-end RFID tags can be susceptible to cloning and unauthorized reading, which poses risks for data security and authenticity.
-> Interference: Physical barriers and electronic interference can affect the readability of RFID tags.
-> Read Range: The effective read range can be limited, particularly for passive RFID tags, which can affect tracking in large spaces or complex environments.
-> Cost: electronic chips acquisition and integration costs may prove to be a barrier for some class of products.
To improve product security, it is essential to enhance traceability technologies by integrating additional authentication features that are easily recognizable by naked eye and verifiable by a dedicated mobile application or device. Below a non-exhaustive list of features families:
1. Digital Proprietary codes:
A variable digital pattern featuring encrypted data that can be printed or marked on the product and then scanned using a smartphone and a dedicated application. This feature may include anti-copy mechanisms to combat replication attempts on counterfeit products. It can be easily implemented at packaging level or on the production lines that are equipped with serialization capabilities.
2. Security labels:
Security labels are commonly used vehicles of authentication as they can be applied directly to products or packaging and incorporate several features such as:
-> Overt features: Security elements that are easily identifiable by the naked eye, such as holograms, micro-optics, and optically variable inks. These features provide immediate visual verification also for the untrained stakeholders and are helpful in deterring counterfeiters.
-> Covert features: hidden or invisible elements that can be authenticated with a tool such as a:
1. Magnifier : to reveal micro-text or micro-images.
2. UV/ Infrared light: to display hidden images, patterns, or text.
3. Special device: to detect the optical or magnetic properties of custom-made molecules
4. Smartphone: Apps can analyze various features and decode codes (standard or proprietary), providing authentication response and access to additional information.
3. Secure RFID tags:
These tags adopt more secure chips, they can store large amount of encrypted data while ensuring that only authorized users can access the information. A proper layer of implementation can guarantee the highest level of authentication confidence.
And what about Blockchain?
First of all, it is important to remind that blockchain is a technology that provides robust way of storing information that is impervious to hacking and data manipulation. When used as an underlying base for a traceability solution it may help solving problems related to lack of trust between the stakeholders and it certainly provides transparency on the recorded data. Nevertheless, blockchain cannot authenticate a product without relying on external devices such as RFID tags, security labels and the like.
While Blockchain can preserve the immutability of the recorded data, the quality of the data itself is not verified (or authenticated) by the blockchain. Typically, you will hear “garbage in, garbage out” with the additional hiccup that this “garbage” cannot easily be removed from the database.
Conclusion:
While traceability provides essential information, it cannot guarantee a product’s authenticity on its own. Especially when the supply chain is heterogeneous and open to infiltration.
To achieve effective results, it’s vital to integrate various technologies and assess which solutions best meet the specific context, challenges, costs, and implementation needs. There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
Traceability and authentication technologies should not be viewed merely as costs; they are strategic investments that can strengthen a brand’s position in the market. By enhancing competitive advantage and building consumer trust, these technologies can lead to a return on investment that may exceed expectations in the long run.