Earlier this month, members of the Source Certain executive team travelled to London to attend the Greensphere Capital Annual Science Summit. The event brings together leaders from investment, industry, science and policy to address one of the defining challenges of our time: understanding and managing the risks hidding within increasingly complex and interconnected global supply chains.
The summit explored a wide range of topics, including food fraud, forced labour in cotton production, critical minerals risk, the illegal timber trade, and the use of satellite imagery and human-AI collaboration to combat environmental crime. Across the presentations and discussions, there was a strong focus on the role that science, technology and collaboration can play in improving supply chain transparency and integrity.
Source Certain was pleased to be invited to deliver the day’s closing presentation, where Founder and CTO Cameron Scadding explored how forensic science can strengthen confidence in product origin claims.
Drawing on real-world case studies, Cameron highlighted Source Certain’s work across a range of industries and supply chain risks. These included cotton origin testing linked to forced labour concerns, investigations that uncovered Russian timber and critically endangered species in certified wood products, tomato puree products found to likely contain Chinese tomatoes despite Italian origin claims, and large-scale seafood verification programs involving thousands of wild prawn samples. Together, these examples demonstrated why testing the physical product itself is becoming an increasingly important complement to traditional traceability systems and supply chain documentation.
One of the most significant takeaways from the summit was how rapidly the conversation around supply chain assurance has evolved. As supply chains become more complex and stakeholder expectations continue to rise, there is growing recognition that digital traceability systems alone cannot provide complete assurance. While these tools remain valuable, the data they rely upon can be incomplete, inaccurate or deliberately manipulated. As a result, scientific origin verification of the physical product is increasingly being recognised by industry leaders as a critical additional layer of confidence for organisations seeking to substantiate their claims.
We thank the organisers, Divya Seshamani, Graham Ramsbottom and the Greensphere Capital team for the invitation and for creating the space for these important conversations.
If you’d like to continue the conversation, get in touch with our team today.
Talk to one of our experts
Whether your enquiry is about a service we offer, a request for more information about our technologies or you would like to know more about our company or team, please call or send us a message.