American Consumers to Manufacturers: It better be 100% what you say it is or we are not buying, especially if it involves child or forced labor

STONY BROOK, NY--(Marketwired - January 18, 2017) - Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: APDN), a provider of DNA-based supply chain, anti-counterfeiting and anti-theft technology, product genotyping and product authentication solutions, announced the results of a cotton survey conducted by Harris Poll.

Home goods and apparel manufacturers: Consumers are voicing their concerns. With a new president focused on protecting products born in the USA, consumers may be looking more closely at product origins, and could demand more transparency. Thirty percent of Americans said that they would completely stop purchasing a brand if they made a false product claim about a bedding/clothing product being 100% organic, 100% Pima cotton, or other claim of this type, while roughly three in five Americans (61%) say if they found a brand made their bedding/clothing products from raw cotton that was picked by child laborers /forced laborers, they would no longer purchase the brand. These statistics are part of a recent survey of over 2,000 US adults 18 and over, conducted online in December 2016 by Harris Poll on behalf of Applied DNA Sciences, that develops DNA-based technology to help justify product claims, ensure authenticity and provide an additional level of transparency across global supply chains.

Citing scientific proof of product claims as a key factor in consumer purchase decisions, the survey yielded telling insights involving product trust and how that trust influences the final decision to purchase or not:

• Over three quarters of Americans (76%) say when a product claim indicates cotton bedding/clothing is 100% organic, 100% Pima cotton, etc. they believe it is true.

• One quarter of Americans (25%) say if they discovered that a brand claimed a cotton bedding/clothing product was 100% organic, 100% Pima cotton, or other claim of this type, and it turned out not to be true, it would have a lot of negative impact on their likelihood to purchase that brand and 3 in 10 (30%) say it would completely stop them from purchasing that brand.

• 78% of Americans say if a cotton bedding/clothing product claimed to be 100% organic, 100% Pima cotton, or other claims of that type, and all else was equal, they would be likely to buy a brand that showed scientific proof of its claim over one that did not.

• Nearly one third of Americans (32%) say if they found out a brand that claimed to make their bedding/clothing products from cotton grown in the US but actually used a blend of cotton grown in the U.S. and China, they would purchase less frequently from that brand.

• Roughly three in five Americans (61%) say if they found out a brand made their bedding/clothing products from raw cotton that was picked by child laborers/forced laborers, they would no longer purchase from that brand.

"This survey reaffirms what we have known all along," said Dr. James A. Hayward, CEO of Applied DNA Sciences. "Consumers want authentic products and want to trust in what they are buying. They have no interest in bringing a product into their home that has been born of any kind of forced labor. Our primary aim is to cleanse the cotton supply chain and by that, I mean eliminating any diversion, any mislabeling, any counterfeiting that can take place throughout the cotton supply chain. An ideal way to ascertain the true identity of a natural commodity is to use the DNA that nature gave that commodity or to mark it with a manufactured DNA. This enables the cotton to be traced to where it was picked before it went into the ginning process that cleans away seed and other debris for packaging into bails to ship around the world for spinning, dyeing and to make into clothes."

Survey Methodology:
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Applied DNA Sciences from December 27-29, 2016 among 2,015 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact Kristen Bujold.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, the words "margin of error" are avoided as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the online panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

About The Harris Poll^®
Over the last 5 decades, Harris Polls have become media staples around the world. Frequent polls tap into a representative sample of Americans of all ages, genders, income and ethnic backgrounds. From sports to health, politics to the economy, the Harris Poll reflects Americans' opinions on a wide range of topics and are regularly published by national, local, consumer, business and trade media outlets. Harris Poll offers a diverse portfolio of proprietary client solutions to anchor and propel communications campaigns. Armed with relevant insights on public opinion, public and private sector clients harness the power of the Harris Poll to gain both credibility and coverage to drive their desired business outcomes.

About Applied DNA Sciences

We make life real and safe by providing botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions and services that can help protect products, brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. Our patented DNA-based solutions can be used to identify, tag, track, and trace products, to help assure authenticity, traceability and quality of products. SigNature^® DNA describes the platform ingredient that is at the heart of a family of uncopyable, security and authentication solutions such as SigNature^® T and fiberTyping^®, targeted toward textiles and apparel, DNAnet^®, for anti-theft and loss prevention, and digitalDNA^®, providing powerful track and trace. All provide a forensic chain of evidence, and can be used to prosecute perpetrators. We are also engaged in the large-scale production of specific DNA sequences using the polymerase chain reaction.

Go to adnas.com for more information, events and to learn more about how Applied DNA Sciences makes life real and safe. Common stock listed on NASDAQ under the symbol APDN, and warrants are listed under the symbol APDNW.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements made by APDN in this press release may be "forward-looking" in nature within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe APDN's future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to our short operating history, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in APDN's SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on December 6, 2016, which is available at www.sec.gov. APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, unless otherwise required by law.