The trial displayed the capacity of the APDN platform for use in protecting massive international cotton crops from counterfeiting and dilution.

Dr James Hayward, CEO and President of Applied DNA Sciences commented: “We believe that the great success of this trial shows that the APDN anti-counterfeiting platform for textiles will be the worldwide gold standard for brand identity assurance in textiles. APDN can now mark massive volumes of product, on both American and foreign soils, and assure integrity of the textile supply chain at an unprecedented level.”

Mark of authenticity

 The announcement was the second involving the use of the company's new SigNature T platform for textiles and apparel. The first, last week, revealed an agreement between the APDN and Supima, the industry association promoting luxury America Pima Cotton. The second trial is separate from the Supima project, and took place on foreign soil.

 In the trial, a SigNature DNA mark of authenticity was applied to five tons of the finest Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton. APDN scientists were able to detect the difference between real and fake in every test at each major step of the cotton logistics chain, from ginning, through roving, through finished product. The APDN mark survived despite aggressive processing, industrial washing, and other harsh treatments and stresses, the company reports.

Authentication

 While ultra high quality cotton fibre retains its cachet as a luxury product, a rising tide of counterfeit cotton cloth threatens the integrity and worldwide sales of the fibre, the company believes.

These threats include the sale of cheap cotton posing as the real thing, and the theft of intellectual property such as internationally patented logos, labels and brands.

Breakthrough technology

 The SigNature T platform has been made possible by a proprietary breakthrough technology, recently developed by the company to identify textile raw materials as well as finished products.

New binding and extraction techniques are said to have enabled a cost-effective, even more flexible and robust anti-counterfeiting and anti-diversion protection for textiles and apparel, including military protective wear.

Fibres, yarn, fabric, garments and labels marked with unique, secure and enduring SigNature DNA can be authenticated at any point in the supply chain, Applied DNA Sciences reports.

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