It is a highly sophisticated security feature that allows verification without any human intervention except to use the simple hand held instrument. The use of Taggants is increasingly gaining importance in many brand protection solutions. Taggants are invisible identity codes – when these codes are read by specialized readers, users can get this information and use it to verify a product’s authenticity. Taggants may be in the form of printed inks or embedded in the base film of the label.
In case of a positive verification the reader may respond in one of these three ways
This is an overt feature in which the label or packaging is printed with an encrypted image or code which can be scanned using a mobile application. This scanned information is then sent to the source database for authentication and the user gets a validating message if the product is genuine. This process happens in real time in a matter of minutes, hence it can be easily used by retailers and end customers.