India is the largest market in the world for liquor tax stamps, given that 27 states consume 30-35 billion tax stamps annually. While tax stamps at a global level are mainly used on tobacco products as part of a federal scheme, the situation is different in India, where almost all stamps in circulation are used on alcoholic beverages at the individual state level – and no stamps are used at all on tobacco products.

Florida-based Metrc has launched Retail ID™, a serialised QR code solution for enhancing cannabis supply chain transparency at retail level. Rather than replacing Metrc’s existing RFID tag system on cannabis plants and bulk packaging, the code is intended to complement it.

The Korea Minting, Security Printing and ID Card Operating Corp (KOMSCO) has developed a tax stamp in collaboration with VOICEYE, a 2D high-density barcode solution specialist, with a focus on critical global markets like tobacco, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals.

The Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) has completed a two-year pilot study aimed at ensuring supply chain integrity and fuel authenticity for drop-in green fuels (ie. renewable fuels made from biomass sources that can be blended with petroleum products).

Authentix has announced an exclusive partnership with ARMOR-IIMAK, a global player in the thermal transfer ribbon printing industry, to provide brand owners and their authorised contract manufacturers with a new covert security ink available in thermal transfer ribbon format.

Following complaints over £5 fines being dished out to the recipients of letters and parcels suspected of carrying counterfeit postage stamps, the UK postal service, Royal Mail, has launched a scanner tool in its app that lets customers check if a stamp is counterfeit.

By 2025, more than 100 million smartphone users in the US will use a QR code scanner on their mobile devices, compared to 70.6 million in 2020. But how can citizens be sure that what they are scanning is legitimate?

At the Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS) conference in April, Michael Natan, President of Diametryx Inc, presented this new company’s intriguing colour-change particles for use as an overt security feature.

Xeikon, a provider of digital printing presses, has partnered with KURZ and SCRIBOS (part of the KURZ group) to offer a solution that enables digital label printers to combine variable metallic elements, serialised QR codes with embedded copy-protection patterns, and interactive features… all in a single printing pass.

A new labelling technology that prints a QR code directly onto food such as fruit has been developed by a team of researchers in South Korea, according to an announcement by the country’s Ministry of Science and ICT.