Mozzarella maker Beston Foods (ASX:BFC) has called it quits on a merger with an anti-counterfeiting company, nine months after putting it on hold saying more work was needed.

The cheese maker said it was canning the deal with DataDot (ASX:DDT), after one of the tech company’s shareholders succeeded in having the board dumped and pull out of a deal to sell their Australian business to the South African data dot licensee.

Furthermore, Beston also commissioned a review into its own technology which in April said the authenticity tech wasn’t too bad and just required a few changes around cybersecurity. They’re still going to sell it off, but aren’t saying when.

Beston announced in February last year that it would merge its technology division with DataDot into a $20m company.

DataDot uses microdots, originally developed by the CSIRO, to watermark property and trace everything from documents and currency to pharmaceuticals, cars, wine and casino chips.

But that was put on hold in August and a decision was supposed to be made by February this year.

Beston also said today it’s still only making 500 tonnes of mozzarella at its South Australian factory at Jervois.

That is still well shy of the factory’s 16,000 tonne mozzarella-making capacity, and a level they hit in May last year.

Last year the company reported an unexpected $12.6m annual loss, caused by increased costs associated with the new Jervois factory and delays in bringing it online.