Brand owners have long kept traceability of their product to the last mile consumer on the forefront. They also constantly keep a track of the supply chain to monitor the authenticity of their products.

According to the organisers, the PackPlus webinar addressed the concerns faced by brands pertaining to the credible traceability of products. The webinar focused on the credible traceability in the various sectors and how the industry is affected.

The webinar also shed light on various supply chain issues faced by label and packaging converters.

Speaking about how cloned products are affecting the consumers, Dilip Saha of Robert Bosh said, “The cloned products are sold at one-tenth of the cost of the original product and this affects the consumer since they are being duped. They eventually lose their trust [on the brand] and this becomes a serious issue when it comes to the pharma industry.”

Mohit Agarwal of Janssen (J&J) Pharmaceutical added, “Post Covid, the non-cloneable traceability is more eminent. We need devices and the infrastructure to find if the product is original or a cloned one”.

He also highlighted how counterfeiters defraud consumers of billions of dollars in the counterfeit market.

Adding to the discussion, Venkat Maroju, CEO of Source Trace, emphasised on the need for certifications for high-value products such as cocoa, vanilla and coffee in the food industry.

Key discussion areas of the webinar

• Blockchain versus the physical layer of supply chain, which usually remains unsecured in the requirement of non-clonable copy-proof QR/GS1 codes.
•  Whether credible traceability in agri/food/automotive sectors are driven by regulation or market demand.
• Role of printing equipment vendors.
• Understanding broad expectations of label/packaging converters for deployable non-clonable solutions.
• Definition of 'being non-clonable'.
• How the hidden cost of traditional clonable codes cause futile ground investigations draining budget quickly.
• How non-clonable printing can be made as simple as well as sophisticated to prevent unofficial print of originals in connivance.