Falsified wine labels may have become an issue for China as of late, but they are far from the only country required to contend with criminals forging imitation versions of well-known brands. A recent report from the New York Times pinpointed an alarming British operation that saw the production of cheap, unregulated vodka into bottles that appeared to belong to the Glen’s brand. Not only did this violate tax protocol and health standards, it left the potential for consumers in any of the countries that received shipments of these drinks to be harmed.
It may seem impossible to begin making labels that are both easy to produce and difficult for criminals to copy, but this looks to be an increasing concern, no matter what type of food or beverage your organization is in charge of. In the case of the vodka-fakers, the criminals in charge were said to have a real attention to the specific kinds of labels the actual brand used.
The Times spoke to Mitchell Weinberg, the president of an organization that fights against food fraud, about the prevalence of these occurrences around the world.
“Just about every single ingredient that has even a moderate economic value is potentially vulnerable to fraud,” Weinberg said.
This alone should be enough to encourage companies to adopt their own means of making labels that give them the control they need to ward off possible threats to their brand presence. A Primera LX900 color label printer can form a critical part of a company’s security strategy as well as its marketing.