This story was first published on November 18, 2008
Outline
Circulating message claims that consumers can identify what country a product was manufactured in by analyzing the first 3 digits of the product’s barcode.
Brief Analysis
The information in the message is misleading. While the first three digits of the product barcode may sometimes indicate where the product was manufactured, it will not always do so. The barcode prefix is not a reliable and constant method of determining a product’s country of manufacture.
Example
Subject: Product Bar Coding
Product Bar Coding
The whole world is scared of China made ‘black hearted goods’. Can you differentiate which one is made in the USA , Philippines , Taiwan or China ? For your Information … the first 3 digits of the barcode is the country code wherein the product was made.
Sample: all barcodes that start with 690.691.692 until 695 are all MADE IN CHINA.
471 is Made in Taiwan
This bar code is 471 – Made in Taiwan
This is our human right to know, but the government and related department never educate the public, therefore we have to RESCUE ourselves.
Nowadays, Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products ‘made in china’, so they don’t show from which country it is made.
However, you may now refer to the barcode, remember if the first 3 digits is 690-695 then it is Made in China .
00 ~ 13 USA & CANADA
30 ~ 37 FRANCE
40 ~ 44 GERMANY
49 ~ JAPAN
50 ~ UK
57 ~ Denmark
64 ~ Finland
76 ~ Switzerland and Lienchtenstein
471 ~ Taiwan
628 ~ Saudi-Arabien
629 ~ United Arab Emirates
690-695 ~ China
740 ~ 745 – Central America
All 480 Codes are Made in the Philippines.
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.com/product-bar-codes.shtml