When we go shopping for food supplies, we usually want to know the origin of food we buy. It is so because consumers are highly aware that the country of origin many a times signals the good or bad quality of the food item, or other one for that matter.
If a product comes from a highly-polluted environment (such as heavy metal pollution, heavy traffic gasses, heavy soil pollution, or even poor soil nourishment, high radiation exposure, etc.), or it has gone through a process of “improvement” that is processing with harmful chemical substances, then it is certainly NOT an item you want in your shopping cart.
And these days, it seems that the entire world is reasonably scared of the overwhelming abundance of those China-made “black-hearted goods.”
Our question is: Can you tell which food item was made in the U.S., in the Republic of the Philippines, in Taiwan, or in the ill-famed China?
It can be interesting, right? So let’s start…
Acknowledge that the first 2 (sometimes 3) digits [which are called the “flag”] indicate in which country the bar code was issued. This “flag” however does not tell you in which country the product was produced!
For instance, in the sample bar code [you can see in the picture below] the first 3 digits 471 stand for Taiwan-made product. Then bar codes that start in 690, 691, 692… up to 695 are all CHINA- MADE!
If you look right now in your shopping bag, in your fridge or in your storeroom, you will see that almost each package you have dropped down there has a bar code printed on it. In fact, nearly every item you buy in a grocery shop, supermarket or in a superstore has a bar code on it somewhere.
For your info, here is some history on bar codes:
Bar codes were first used commercially in 1966, but it was soon realized that there would have to be a common standard. By 1970, the Universal Grocery Products Identification Code (UGPIC) was written by a company called Logicon Inc. The standard was further worked on, and led to the Universal Product Code (UPC) symbol set.
To this very day, this standard is used in the United States and in Canada . In the month of June in 1974, the first UPC scanner was installed at a Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio, and the first product to have a bar code was the ordinary Wrigley’s Gum.
The Universal Product Code was the very first bar code representation widely adopted. Its birth is usually set on April 3rd, 1973, when the grocery industry formally established UPC as the standard bar code symbol for product marking. Foreign interest in UPC led to the adoption of the European Article Numbering (EAN) code format, similar to UPC, in the month of December in 1976.
Presently, the United States and Canada use UPC bar codes as their standard for retail labelling, whereas the rest of the world uses EAN. Since January 1, 2005, all retail scanning systems in the U.S. must be able to accept the EAN-13 symbol as well as the standard UPC-A. This change will eliminate the need for manufacturers who export goods to the U.S. and Canada to double-label their products.
We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. So, we do have every right as paying customers and consumers alike to know the meaning behind this food coding. But, as we all know, the government and its related departments never bother to educate the public and consumers. In such instance, we simply have to do it by ourselves just like any other do-it-yourself (DIY) project.
Indeed, Chinese businessmen know only too well that most consumers do not prefer a product with the label ‘made in China’ to other products in the market, so they opt not to show the country where it was made.
However, you may now refer to the barcode, and you might as well keep in mind that, if the first 2 or 3 digits are a number from 690-695, then the food item was surely made in China.
And here below, we give you the country codes of other countries that are in use:
CODE
COUNTRY
00-13
USA & Canada
20-29
reserved for local use (shops/supermarkets)
30-37
France
380
Bulgaria
383
Slovenia
385
Croatia
387
Bosnia-Herzegovina
400-440
Germany
45
Japan
46
Russian Federation
471
Taiwan
474
Estonia
475
Latvia
476
Azerbaijan
477
Lithuania
478
Uzbekistan
479
Sri Lanka
480
Philippines
481
Belarus
482
Ukraine
484
Moldova
485
Armenia
486
Georgia
487
Kazakhstan
489
Hong Kong
49
Japan
50
UK
520
Greece
528
Lebanon
529
Cyprus
531
Macedonia
535
Malta
539
Ireland
54
Belgium & Luxembourg
560
Portugal
569
Iceland
57
Denmark
590
Poland
594
Romania
599
Hungary
600-601
South Africa
609
Mauritius
611
Morocco
613
Algeria
619
Tunisia
621
Syria
622
Egypt
624
Libya
625
Jordan
626
Iran
627
Kuwait
628
Saudi Arabia
629
United Arab Emirates
64
Finland
690-692
China
70
Norway
729
Israel
73
Sweden
740
Guatemala
741
El Salvador
742
Honduras
743
Nicaragua
744
Costa Rica
745
Panama
746
Dominican Republic
750
Mexico
759
Venezuela
76
Switzerland
770
Colombia
773
Uruguay
775
Peru
777
Bolivia
779
Argentina
780
Chile
784
Paraguay
785
Peru
786
Ecuador
789
Brazil
80-83
Italy
84
Spain
850
Cuba
858
Slovakia
859
Czech Republic
860
Serbia & Montenegro
869
Turkey
87
Netherlands
880
South Korea
885
Thailand
888
Singapore
890
India
893
Vietnam
899
Indonesia
90 -91
Austria
93
Australia
94
New Zealand
955
Malaysia
958
Macau
977
ISSN (International Standard Serial Number for periodicals)
978
ISBN (International Standard Book Number)
979
ISMN (International Standard Music Number)
Bar codes are something most of us never even give it a thought, right? But, if want to go health-wise, and if your imperative is to improve the quality of your current diet, and thus enjoy good health and longevity, we strongly advise you to pay close attention to these bar codes next time you find yourself in a shopping isle of a supermarket.
The food choices you make every day have a tremendous impact on your health, and on the quality of your overall life, as well as on the lives of people you love, care about, and ultimately live for.
You will agree with us: It is always better to be safe than to be sorry!
You can find more information at:
http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/barcodes.htm
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The post How To Read The Country Of Origin In Barcodes! appeared first on Diet of Life.