Anti-Counterfeiting Technologies Tell Packaging Knock-Offs To Knock It Off

In a perfect world, food and beverage producers wouldn't have to spend billions to protect themselves against bogus packaging. But, at least they have effective ways to spend the money.

Unfortunately, the counterfeiting of food and beverage packaging is big business. Unsurprisingly, so is devising anti-counterfeiting methods to keep packaging genuine and consumers of packaged goods safe.

So states a new report from Allied Market Research (AMR) on growth trends in the world market for packaging authentication technologies, which the organization says was worth $54.7 billion in 2013. It will be worth $142.7 by 2020, according to AMR, as awareness of counterfeiting grows and the demand for protective solutions increases.

Demand will rise because every year, millions of people are deceived into buying counterfeited food and beverages and running the health and safety risks that faked products bring. Unfamiliarity with authentication technologies on the part of manufacturers and the lack of affordable of solutions could limit market growth. But, AMR believes that awareness campaigns by trade groups and interventions by government authorities will help the market for anti-counterfeiting technologies to achieve a CAGR of 16.1% through 2020.

Holograms—already familiar to consumers as authenticity markers for credit cards—will lead among these technologies during the forecast period, with RFID solutions showing the fastest growth (20.4% CAGR). Bar codes and emerging track-and-trace technologies such as DNATrax also will be used to produce secure packaging that prevents imitation, confirms the safety of packaged goods, and protects supply chain integrity.

Techniques like these help companies stem the losses in revenue and brand loyalty that counterfeiting costs them. North America accounted for about 50% of the global anti-counterfeit food packaging market in 2014, according to AMR. Awareness and demand also are on the rise in Europe and Asia. In developing countries, a strong driver of adoption will be efforts by governments toward food crisis management.

The report identifies a number of solution providers as key players in anti-counterfeiting for packaging. They include Sicapa, Zebra Technologies, Alien Technology Corp., Alpvision, Inksure Technologies, Avery Dennison, Flint Group, and Authentix Inc.