Counterfeit goods cost brand owners revenue and can endanger consumers. Covert features let a brand check genuine packs without the counterfeiter knowing what to copy.
Levels of authentication
- Overt: visible to everyone, such as holograms and colour-shift effects
- Covert: invisible until checked with a tool, such as UV-fluorescent marks seen under a UV torch or IR marks read by a detector
- Forensic: coded taggants identified only in a laboratory
Why layers work
Combining an overt, a covert and a forensic feature makes copying much harder, because a counterfeiter must reproduce all three, and a field inspector can still check the pack quickly.
Security in the supply chain
Security materials are only as safe as their handling. Controlled issue, batch reconciliation and restricted access to formulas and codes are part of the product.
