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Assignees
Dnatrek Inc LLC • Lawrence Livermore National Security LLC • Safetraces Inc
MemberSafeTracesSafeTracesSafeTraces provides technology-driven solutions for indoor air quality validation, biosafety, and supply chain traceability. The company specializes in aerosol tracing, DNA-based product tagging, rapid qPCR detection, and cloud-based analytics. Clients span healthcare, infrastructure, real estate, food, and government sectors, supporting regulatory compliance, operational safety, and risk management.
SafeTraces provides technology-driven solutions for indoor air quality validation, biosafety, and supply chain traceability. The company specializes in aerosol tracing, DNA-based product tagging, rapid qPCR detection, and cloud-based analytics. Clients span healthcare, infrastructure, real estate, food, and government sectors, supporting regulatory compliance, operational safety, and risk management.
Publication Number
US-11692988-B2
Publication Date
2023-07-04
Expiration Date
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.
Core Innovation
The invention relates to DNA-based barcoding for food traceability, in which a DNA barcode taggant is used to identify an attribute of a material. The barcode includes at least N unique independent pieces of DNA that are constructed to be distinguishable from DNA present in the material, and each piece corresponds to a binary digit of N binary digits. The N binary digits of the DNA bar code identify the attribute of the material, and the DNA pieces are mixed to form the DNA bar code mixture.
A DNA bar code taggant is formed by mixing the selected at least N unique independent pieces of DNA with a carrier, and the taggant is applied to the material. The applied taggant is configured so that the unique DNA pieces remain distinguishable from DNA present in the material, enabling subsequent detection of the barcode value(s). The carrier includes at least one food-compatible carrier component selected from water, carnauba oil, silicone oil, sprout inhibitors, vitamin C, lipids, polysaccharides, proteins, and agar gel.
The invention also includes determining the barcode from the material by using polymerase chain reaction and detecting copy numbers to determine values of the corresponding binary digits. After determining the N binary digits of the DNA code, an attribute of the material is determined based on the barcode. In the described food traceability context, the attribute can include origin-related information such as grower/packer identity, field/location, crew, and machine, and can also include harvest/packing/shipment dates.
Claims Coverage
The partial document contains three independent claims (clm-00001, clm-00009, and clm-00016). Across these claims, the inventive coverage centers on a DNA barcode constructed from at least N distinguishable unique DNA pieces encoding N digits of a DNA bar code for an attribute, including determining those digits via PCR-based detection, and applying the resulting DNA-barcode taggant to a material using a carrier and/or specified application.
Distinguishable N-piece DNA bar code forming a taggant
Selecting at least N unique independent pieces of DNA constructed to be distinguishable from the material, each unique independent piece corresponding to a binary digit of N binary digits of a DNA bar code that identifies the attribute of the material (N>1); mixing the selected pieces to form a mixture containing the DNA bar code; mixing the mixture with a carrier to form the taggant; and applying the taggant to the material.
PCR-based copy-number detection of N digits for attribute determination
Tagging a material with a taggant comprising a DNA barcode, the DNA bar code comprising at least N unique independent pieces of DNA constructed to be distinguishable from the material (N>1); for each unique independent piece, determining the corresponding binary digit by causing a polymerase chain reaction through heating cycles to increase copies, and detecting the number of copies to determine the value of the binary digit; and determining an attribute of the material based on the N binary digits of the DNA code.
Taggant applied to material with N distinguishable DNA pieces encoding digit values
A taggant applied to a material comprising at least one DNA bar code for identifying an origin of the material, the at least one DNA bar code including at least N unique independent pieces of DNA representing N digits of a bar code that identifies an attribute of the material (N>1), wherein each of the at least N unique independent pieces represents one value of a corresponding one of the N digits, and wherein each of the at least N unique independent pieces of DNA is constructed to be distinguishable from DNA present in the material.
Across the independent claims, the patent coverage is directed to encoding an attribute using a DNA bar code made from at least N distinguishable unique DNA pieces that correspond to binary digits, applying the resulting DNA-barcode taggant to a material via mixing with a carrier, and determining the attribute by polymerase chain reaction and detecting copy numbers to resolve the N binary digits of the DNA code.
Stated Advantages
Enables whole-chain food traceability by using DNA-barcode tags to identify attributes of a food material.
Documented Applications
Food traceability use cases including identifying origin attributes and dates along a distribution chain, including grower/packer identity, field/location, crew, machine, harvest/packing/shipment dates.
Contamination/temperin(g) related traceability contexts and determination of concentration/purity using controlled DNA-to-food ratios (conceptual concentration/purity determination described).
Food fraud and detection contexts described as part of traceability using the DNA barcode and PCR-based detection.
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