FMCG 6 min readApr 11, 2026

Refill fraud: the silent margin killer in FMCG

Empty containers, refilled with inferior product, resold as premium. It's the biggest unmeasured leak in FMCG.

Anil Kapoor

FMCG Practice Lead

Refill fraud is invisible to conventional serialization. The unit is real; the contents are not.

Tamper-evident authentication tied to first-scan events is the only reliable defense.

Companion guide

Benchmarks, ROI math and rollout templates — free for enterprise teams.

Counterfeits erode revenue, but the deeper damage is to brand equity, consumer trust and regulatory standing.

Standard QR codes are trivially copyable. Non-Reproducible Barcodes shift authentication from readable to physically unclonable.

Boards are no longer asking 'where is the shipment?' — they are asking 'can we prove it was never tampered with?'

8 articles in the Knowledge Center.

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