DNA Based Bar Code for Improved Food Traceability

Abstract

Food distributed to consumers through a distribution chain may be traced by tagging the food with DNA tags that identify the origin of the food, such as the grower, packer and other points of distribution, and their attributes. This makes it much quicker and easier to trace the food in case of food contamination or adulteration. Preferably these attributes indicate the field, location, crew and machine used to grow and process the food, and the dates of the various steps of food harvesting, processing and distribution. Natural or synthetic DNA pieces may be used to tag items, including food items. Multidigit binary or other types of bar codes may be represented by multiple types of DNA. Each digit of the bar code may be represented by one, two or more unique DNA pieces.

1 .- 3 . (canceled) 
     
     
         4 . A product comprising:
 a material for tagging, the material including at least N unique independent pieces of DNA, representing N digits of a bar code that identifies an attribute for which the material tags, wherein each of the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA represents one value of a corresponding one of the N digits, N being a positive integer greater than 1, and wherein each of the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA are constructed to be distinguishable from DNA present prior to introduction of the material.   
     
     
         5 .- 9 . (canceled) 
     
     
         10 . The product of  claim 4 , said bar code being a digital bar code comprising N binary bits, said material including N unique independent pieces of DNA, wherein presence in the material of one of the N unique independent pieces of DNA indicates a first value of a bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA, and the absence from the material of such piece of DNA indicates a second value of the bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA different from the first value. 
     
     
         11 . The product of  claim 4 , said bar code being a digital bar code comprising N binary bits, said material including 2N unique independent pieces of DNA, wherein presence in the material of a first one of the 2N unique independent pieces of DNA indicates a first value of a bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA, and the presence in the material of a second one of the 2N unique independent pieces of DNA and different from the first piece of DNA indicates a second value of such bit in the digital bar code different from the first value of such bit. 
     
     
         12 . The product of  claim 4 , wherein said at least N unique independent pieces of DNA are different from one another in that they contain different sequences or lengths of DNA. 
     
     
         13 . The product of  claim 4 , wherein said at least N unique independent pieces of DNA include synthetic DNA. 
     
     
         14 . The product of  claim 4 , wherein said at least N unique independent pieces of DNA include DNA that exists in nature. 
     
     
         15 .- 23 . (canceled) 
     
     
         24 . A method for detecting an attribute for a material including at least N unique independent pieces of DNA, representing N digits of a DNA bar code that identifies the attribute, N being a positive integer greater than 1, wherein each of the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA represents one value of a corresponding one of the N digits, said method comprising:
 detecting detected pieces of DNA of the material;   deriving a derived DNA bar code from the detected pieces of DNA; and   comparing the derived DNA bar code to a predetermined DNA bar code that identifies the attribute to detect the attribute.   
     
     
         25 .- 31 . (canceled) 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein applying the material further comprises spraying the material with a carrier. 
     
     
         33 .- 34 . (canceled) 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 32 , wherein the carrier includes at least one of water, lipids, polysaccharides, proteins, and agar gel. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 24 , further comprising:
 for each unique independent piece of DNA of the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA, determining the corresponding binary digit of N binary digits of the DNA bar code by:
 (1) causing a polymerase chain reaction of the unique independent piece of DNA through one or more heating cycles to increase a number of copies of the unique independent piece of DNA; and 
 (2) detecting the number of copies of the unique independent piece of DNA to determine a value of the corresponding binary digit of the N binary digits of the DNA bar code; and 
   based on the N binary digits of the DNA bar code, determining the attribute.   
     
     
         37 .- 41 . (canceled) 
     
     
         42 . The method of  claim 36 , wherein the material further comprises a carrier and wherein the carrier comprises at least one of water, lipids, polysaccharides, proteins, and agar gel. 
     
     
         43 . An applied taggant comprising at least one DNA bar code for identifying an attribute, wherein the at least one DNA bar code includes at least N unique independent pieces of DNA, representing N digits of a bar code that identifies the attribute, wherein each of the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA represents one value of a corresponding one of the N digits, N being a positive integer greater than one, and wherein each of the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA are constructed to be distinguishable from DNA present from sources other than the applied taggant. 
     
     
         44 .- 47 . (canceled) 
     
     
         48 . The applied taggant of  claim 43 , wherein the DNA bar code is a digital bar code comprising N binary bits, the applied taggant including N unique independent pieces of DNA, wherein presence in the applied taggant of one of the N unique independent pieces of DNA indicates a first value of a bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA, and the absence from the material of such piece of DNA indicates a second value of the bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA different from the first value. 
     
     
         49 . The applied taggant of  claim 43 , wherein the DNA bar code is a digital bar code comprising N binary bits, the applied taggant including 2N unique independent pieces of DNA, wherein presence in the applied taggant of a first one of the 2N unique independent pieces of DNA indicates a first value of a bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA, and the presence in the applied taggant of a second one of the 2N unique independent pieces of DNA and different from the first piece of DNA indicates a second value of such bit in the digital bar code different from the first value of such bit. 
     
     
         50 . The applied taggant of  claim 43 , wherein the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA include synthetic DNA. 
     
     
         51 . The applied taggant of  claim 43 , wherein the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA include DNA that exists in nature. 
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the DNA bar code is a digital bar code comprising N binary bits, the material including N unique independent pieces of DNA, wherein presence in the material of one of the N unique independent pieces of DNA indicates a first value of a bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA, and the absence from the material of such piece of DNA indicates a second value of the bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA different from the first value. 
     
     
         53 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the DNA bar code is a digital bar code comprising N binary bits, the material including 2N unique independent pieces of DNA, wherein presence in the material of a first one of the 2N unique independent pieces of DNA indicates a first value of a bit in the digital bar code corresponding to such piece of DNA, and the presence in the material of a second one of the 2N unique independent pieces of DNA and different from the first piece of DNA indicates a second value of such bit in the digital bar code different from the first value of such bit. 
     
     
         54 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA include synthetic DNA. 
     
     
         55 . The method of  claim 24 , wherein the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA include DNA that exists in nature.