Patent ID: 8866106

Claim:
A method to assess the quality of a surface coating process or of the surface coating resulting therefrom, wherein said assessing comprises the steps of: producing said surface coating by applying to the surface of said product a coating composition comprising an aqueous suspension comprising a coating substance and a marker system comprising at least one phosphorescent marker, wherein the coating substance and the phosphorescent marker are present at a fixed ratio, and wherein the marker system serves as an internal standard to the coating substance, and optionally drying said coating composition; quantitatively or qualitatively measuring the intensity of said at least one phosphorescent marker in said surface coating on the surface of said product; and determining from the measured intensity of the phosphorescent marker the amount of coating substance on said product surface thereby assessing the quality of said surface coating or of said surface coating process, wherein said product is a seed and wherein said surface coating process comprises the application of a desired amount or concentration of a seed coat to said seed.