Recently, the company has been fielding inquiries for DNA tagging of cotton from multiple foreign countries. For strategic reasons, the company has decided not to reveal the customer and the location at this time. The SigNature T tagging system will be installed at the international gin this quarter in advance of orders for the Company's molecular taggants.

SigNature T DNA Transfer System

According to the company, the benefit of the SigNature T DNA Transfer System is that it can be installed within the gin's normal processes. The system provides over 60 data points per minute to the company's CertainT IT platform to monitor, record and audit the quantity of tagged bales and the quality of tagged bales associated with each USDA (or other) bale identification number. The partners in the network use the data to manage tagged bale inventory, bale shipments and lab test results for samples.

Evidence obtained from quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) tests to date indicate that essentially every fibre that passes through the gin while the DNA Transfer System is operating is exposed to SigNature T DNA. Quantitative PCR, used for the company's SigNature T, and its fiberTyping and GeoTyping platforms are said to allow the forensic detection of dilution of the original fibres at any point in the supply chain. The company's SigNify qPCR system enables testing on-site by trained, certified personnel.

Establishing provenance with certainty

“Verified cotton based on forensic science helps to establish provenance with certainty. The growers and ginners benefit directly by knowing that the cotton that is tagged, tested and tracked ends up in the finished goods that are sold in their home country. They can depend on a sustainable livelihood knowing that the brands and retailers behind the program are their champions, enabling for continuous planting of cotton, ginning and production for future generations,” said MeiLin Wan, Applied DNA VP, Textiles.

“You don't get to true sustainability without traceability on the fibre itself. We are seeing a shift from reliance on a paper trail that documents unverified fibre, to a new standard based on transparency from the fibre forward, linking all parts of the value chain with our information-rich molecular traceability system.”

Ensuring purity and integrity

The SigNature T system and supply chain protocols are designed to assure the purity and integrity of any cotton whose global source of origin leads to unique performance or claims. Countries with large cotton economies often want to market finished goods based on the use of cotton exclusively from the country. In the markets of the US, Egypt, Turkey, Peru, China, Australia and India, preference is often given to cotton grown in the home country. The maintenance of intact supply chains, with forensic proof of origin can lead to substantiation of ancillary claims, such as sustainable sourcing or the exclusion of cotton fibres that may have been obtained with labour derived from human trafficking.

SigNature T preserves the integrity and purity of cotton fibre from source to shelf by enabling end-to-end traceability with forensic evidence. Over 100 million data points are being captured per season from the gins into the CertainT Textile Portal and over 3,000 SigNature T tests have been conducted since 2015. Testing will increase consequent to the establishment of our lab in India. The gin data and reports are shared with the Company's partners and customers, via the CertainT systems platform, configurable for third-party systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning or blockchain networks.

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