Anti-Counterfeit Verification for Packaged Food and FMCG
Fast-moving consumer goods are counterfeited at a scale the seizure numbers only hint at. Nigeria's NAFDAC reported destroying counterfeit and substandard products valued at about ₦1.5 trillion following 2025 raids, across categories from bottled water to rice. The economics are brutal for brand owners: individually cheap units, enormous volumes, and a shopper who has no way to tell.
Refill, repack, relabel
Three mechanics account for most FMCG counterfeiting, and each needs a different answer. Refilling takes your genuine container — most notoriously the 19-litre branded water bottle, which NAFDAC found being refilled from unapproved sources and supplied to hotels and supermarkets. Repackaging puts cheap bulk product into your printed packaging, which is what happens with rice, sugar and cooking oil. Relabelling puts your brand on someone else's goods entirely.
A code helps with all three, but only if it is placed where the mechanic operates: under the cap or seal for refill, as part of the printed pack for repackaging, and on the unit rather than the outer carton for relabelling.
The cost question, answered honestly
At sachet prices, a per-unit code is not always the right economics, and we would rather tell you that than sell you codes you regret. Three approaches work in practice: code the higher-value SKUs in your range where the counterfeiting actually concentrates; code cases and cartons rather than units, so distributors and retailers can verify what they receive; or code units only for the markets where you have evidence of a problem. Pricing is per code generated, so the decision is yours to scale up or down.
Retailers are your best scanners
A shopper buying a sachet will not scan. A supermarket buyer, a wholesaler or a hotel receiving a pallet of water absolutely will, particularly once a bad batch has embarrassed them. Verification codes for trade customers turn goods-in checks into a verified record, and their scans do not consume a consumer's first scan.
Packaged Food & FMCG: common questions
What brands in this category ask us before they start.
Our margins are thin. Is per-unit coding realistic?
Sometimes not, and that is a fair answer. Many FMCG brands start by coding cases and cartons for trade verification, or by coding only the SKUs and markets where counterfeiting is documented. Because you pay per code generated, you can start narrow and expand where the scan data shows a problem.
Our returnable water bottles are refilled by others. What can we do?
Code the seal or cap rather than the bottle. A returnable container will be reused by design, so the code has to live on the part that is replaced each time it is legitimately filled. Then a refilled bottle presented for sale has either no code or a used one, and repeated scans of the same code map where the refilling operation is working.
Can we see which market a counterfeit cluster is in?
Yes. Failed and cloned scans are plotted by region, and consumer reports capture the outlet where the product was bought. Clusters usually point at one distributor's territory or one market, which is where a field check or a regulator referral should go.
Still have a question? Talk to our team — we usually reply within one business day.
Protect your packaged food & fmcg
Start with 250 free codes, or talk to us about a market check in the country where you are losing sales.