IAPRI Working Group:
Anti-Counterfeiting, Product Safety and Security (ACPS)
Mission statement
Create an active working group in anti-counterfeiting, product safety and security that adds value to the membership. This will become a constantly active working group that becomes a hub for conceiving and leading packaging product protection and anti-counterfeiting.
Chair
Paul Singh, PhD, Professor, School of Packaging, Michigan State University
Co-chair
John Spink, PhD, Associate Director & Assistant Professor, Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University
Actions and progress
- May 2009—Inaugural meeting at the 2009 IAPRI Symposium
- June 2009—Create LinkedIn group site, including invitations to members who attended the May 2009 inaugural meeting
- June 2009—Begin on-line working group collaboration: discuss the working group title, begin gathering a database on current IAPRI member activities, and begin defining group work direction.
- July 2009—See the recent article about the working group in the July 2009 Edition of Packaging World Magazine [Spink, J. (2009), ACADEMIC FOOD STUFF—Global packaging research collaboration, Packaging World Magazine, July 2009 , p. 21, http://www.packworld.com/article-27769]
Online
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1986816
More information
This new working group was convened at the 2009 Symposium by IAPRI Board Member Dr. Paul Singh from Michigan State University. The group is chaired by Dr. John Spink and Co-Chaired by Dr. Paul Singh. MSU's Doug Moyer is assisting in the management and specifically the coordination of the on-line portion of the working group.
The working group was originally conceived during the 2007 program presentations and conversations from industry members, and will focus on food safety, food fraud, and anti-counterfeiting. Although food is used as a case study, the matrix applies to all products.
| Food Quality | Food Fraud | Economic Threat |
| Food Safety | Food Defense | Public Health Threat |
| Unintentional | Intentional |
Figure 1. The Food Risk Matrix (Spink, 2006)
- Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Fraud: There is clear need for more research and scholarship in this emerging area. The working group will both provide a resource for researchers but also as a forum for industry to help define specific research paths. The root focus is to understand the chemistry of the crime, to focus on specific detection or deterrent countermeasures.
- Food Safety: A specific focus is on food safety to help packaging research groups establish a base for more collaboration and more precise insight on the needs of industry. The group will focus on integrating multi-function actions to achieve a focused goal to meet global food safety needs, including extended shelf-life, microbial resistance, and traceability.
The formation of this working group is the collective statement that these are explicit disciplines for packaging researchers. The working group will provide a linkage to and from world-wide entities, and to serve as a resource for global food and product agencies.
About the IAPRI Anti-Counterfeiting, Product Safety and Security (ACPS) Working Group: The work group focuses on package and product safety and security, from food safety to anti-counterfeiting. The IAPRI was started in 1971 as an international membership association to promote packaging as a global science. The international membership includes members from over 30 countries and from every continent.