Intelligent packaging to provide protection against theft, counterfeiting, and tampering
Although theft and counterfeiting are not too common in the food industry, they do pose a huge economical burden in other industries. Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) is used to deter the theft of high-priced goods, and leads the technology in electronic tagging systems. Tampering is another global issue, and therefore more sophisticated anti-tampering devices or packages with responsive technology are necessary to control and minimize these problems.
Andrew Scully, of Food Science Australia of CSIRO( New South Wales, Australia) has invented a technology for flexible packaging that creates a large-diameter color change on the surface of the package after tampering. Even a pinhole can be detected with the highly visible mark, so as to alert customers about potential damage to the contents of the package. Irreversible thermochromic materials can provide a closure which"bruises" during any attempts to tamper, thus alerting the customer before the goods are purchased.
The main purposes in lowering the risks of tampering are first to eliminate tampering. and secondly to locate the already tampered products on the shelf by integrated iden tification. Aluminum and plastic closures can help customers identify if the package has been opened. The tamper-proof band will split when the package is opened, which provides tamper evidence for consumers. Alcoa CSI of Germany has invented the special cap that has"skirts" which curl under the bottom edge of the closure. The segments of the tamper-evident ring("skirt') rupture when the container is opened. Furthermore, ITW Envopak has produced the rectangular bolt seal that cannot be rotated. The bright coating on the bolt functions to increase the visibility of bottle seals and prevent counterfeiting.
Holograms, thermochromic inks, tear labels and tapes, micro-tags, and diffraction in devices are used to deter counterfeiting. They can be incorporated into films, transfer fo tear tapes, and labels. Holograms cannot be duplicated by copiers, scanners, or printers. Their visual effects cannot be reconstructed or simulated. Tamper-evi- dence labels or tapes are invisible before tampering occurs, but change their color perma- nently and leave behind a"STOP" message when the package is opened.