Today, Oritain is working actively with the milk industry collecting and analysiing critical reference data which is adding robustness to existing traceability systems as well as reducing costs. As an Oritain customer, a multi-national milk producer with a factory in China, needing more raw material at short notice, can now verify that milk solids (already in China) offered by a third-party importer are true to origin as stated on the label.

Because of Oritain, this company has been able to increase production by extending planned production runs, instead of initiating new ones. They are also able to more fully utilise plant capacity. Most importantly, they are able to meet unexpected increases in demand using verified ingredients instead of being out-of-stock for the months waiting for their own raw material to be shipped in.

The founders of Oritain were commissioned by the government of New Zealand to demonstrate scientifically that a shipment of contaminated beef (discovered in the EU) was in fact not a product of New Zealand.

In this instance, the traceability system failed because the bar-coded packaging had been separated from the meat before the contamination had been discovered. A lengthy forensic study had to be undertaken because important geochemical reference data had not already been gathered and analysed.

KEEPING THE MARKET OPEN
New Zealand exported 3.6 billion USD worth of meat in 2008. Closing the EU market to New Zealand producers would have been devastating. Using food provenancing science, Oritain founders prevailed on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and was able to exonerate New Zealand beef producers.

Honey is one of the world's most targeted foods for adulteration and counterfeiting. Oritain has developed an extensive database of authentic honey samples from key producing nations, and will continue to do so. We can now compare any sample to our data set and determine if its origin is within a region we have sampled.

Oritain can also determine the floral type (e.g. manuka, thyme, clover, etc.) and percentage of floral type within a blended honey. Our techniques are scalable and applicable to any honey producing region anywhere. Some of the largest producers and exporters in New Zealand have been certified including Waitaki Honey, Lindis Honey, New Zealand Honey Co and the Central Otago Thyme Honey Producers, with more being added every season.

In Vino Veritas. It's a memorable phrase...but in wine, there is not always truth. In fact, wine fraud is more widespread than most people would like to admit. Not only are very expensive wines counterfeited, but even every-day table wines. Take, for example, California wine making giant, E&J Gallo. They were duped by a French consortium into buying and reselling a fake pinot noir (see story in The Guardian).

The scheme hit every level of the supply chain that takes the wine from the vine and gets it to U.S. consumers. The Gallo brand has been thoroughly shaken, and they had to recall their entire stock of the now infamous Red Bicyclette.

Oritain is working with a number of winemakers in New Zealand. Oritain certified wines offer an insurance of integrity and are earning our clients wholesale premiums 15% or more.

Apples are as synonymous with Washington State as they are with Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. Regions spend millions marketing their products and just as much to ensure their products are safe when they reach the consumer. With this much at stake, it is easy to see how safety and brand equity are both threatened by the inability to independently prove origin when things go wrong.

Oritain is now working with Taylorcorp, one of the world's largest apple producers and marketers who export approximately one million cartons of apples per year. Being falsely accused of having fruit with high pesticide residues is something that is particularly worrisome as importing nations impose very stiff penalties. Oritain now holds the evidence on behalf of Taylorcorp to rapidly exonerate them if they are ever falsely accused.

For many wool producers, one of the biggest risks to their enterprise is when their premium product is mixed with less desirable fibre from other sources during fabric and carpet production.

Oritain is working with Forest Range Station and other premium wool producers to provide intelligence and insight into their supply chain. The result will be the ability to easily distinguish our customer's wool from other wool products in the marketplace, anywhere in the world.

Oritain's Chief Scientist recently presented our solution to the Kona Coffee Growers' Association in Hawaii. As a result of this dialog, Oritain is now working with several premium coffee regions around the world to collect and analyse the data needed to offer certification of origin to these products.

Oritain is working with innovative olive oil producers around the world to develop an extensive reference database of authentic samples and conducting random audits of exported products.

By proving that our producer-customer's product that is purchased on a foreign shelf is truthfully labeled, Oritain is offering these producers with a competitive advantage. This will be a long term engagement which will benefit the entire industry by reducing fraud.