Patent ID: 7972859

Claim:
A method of determining authenticity of an ingestible product selected from the group consisting of food and beverage, comprising: (a) identifying an ingestible product to be authenticated; (b) introducing a graded saccharide into a production batch of the ingestible product to form a saccharide-marked batch of the ingestible product; (c) identifying a sample of an ingestible product purportedly from the saccharide-marked batch of product; and (d) testing the sample for a marked presence of the saccharide using a saccharide-specific binding protein, wherein the saccharide-specific binding protein is stabilized to storage, heat, or alcohol concentration, and wherein (i) the ingestible product is not authentic when the testing demonstrates an unexpected change in the marked presence of the saccharide, and (ii) the ingestible product is authentic when the testing demonstrates no unexpected change in the marked presence of the saccharide, wherein the saccharide is maltose and the saccharide specific binding protein is a maltose binding protein.