The Interpol Global Register (IGR), announced at a Google conference outside Los Angeles, aims to track illicit goods by verifying products through security features, using the scanning app.
"Right now in special areas (like) pharmaceuticals, tobacco products and household goods, a consumer doesn't know what's fake and what's real," Interpol chief Ronald Noble said.
"We came up with this idea that will allow a consumer, a law enforcement officer or a business to scan a code and determine whether or not it can be verified as authentic," he added.
"When scanned, an indicated lights up in green or red. Green means verified, red means not verified."
Google designed the application for Android devices, but Interpol plans versions for Apple, Blackberry and Microsoft.
One of its first users is PharmaSecure, a leader in drug authentication technologies, which currently codes more than a million packets of medicines every day in India alone.
"PharmaSecure is proud to be the first to team up with Interpol to help consumers verify their medicines through the Interpol Global Register initiative," said its co-founder Nathan Sigworth.
Noble explained: "In India what they do is they put unique numbers on packages. The goal is that if the product is supposed to go to country A and it is in country C, when you scan it, it will reflect as non-verified, giving consumer a specific warning.
"At the same time it's being scanned, the country where it was produced knows it's being scanned and can map where the illicit traffic is going."
Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge.
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