A number of new models using mobile 2.0 and web 2.0 to protect consumers from the growing threat of dangerous, counterfeit and substandard products have emerged (re: mPedigree).

Counterfeit goods alone have a trade value in excess of 600 billion dollars according to leading research organisations. The trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals is around 50 billion dollars. No one knows the extent of market share held by sub-standard products. Their impact though is becoming widely appreciated: fake vaccines in the mid-1990s killed thousands of infants in Niger. Fake heparin has maimed hundreds of Americans since last year. And melanine adulterated milk has led to 55,000 infants developing complications in China. The carcinogenic and allergenic effects of many products are known only to a few highly informed elites.

Projects that aim to use cell phones to enable consumers verify the orgins of products like mPedigree will prove a bulwark against this tide, but because they require the cooperation of governments and corporations, they are likely to take a bit of time and huge resources to cover the globe.

The proposed VCA will use the highly successful wiki model to catalogue and disseminate information about a great range of consumables to users around the world. A grading system involving the world's regulatory agencies will continually improve upon the integrity of the data.

Web 2.0 and mobile 2.0 functionalities will permit every consumer in the world with access to a cell phone or the internet to draw upon the accumulated knowledge of the global consumerand regulatory community when in doubt about the efficacy, toxicity, originality and origins of any product.