How to read Bar Codes ....

[jrtv]

If it's a concern to you, this may be useful to know when shopping,

GREAT WAY TO "BUY BRITISH ".
Remember if the first 3 digits are:

690-692 ... Then it is MADE IN CHINA
00 - 09 ... USA & CANADA
30 - 37 FRANCE
40 - 44 GERMANY
471 .... Taiwan
49 ... JAPAN
50 ... UK

BUY 'BRITISH' by watching for "50" at the beginning of the number.

[jackthehat]

http://www.snopes.com...business/barcodes.asp

[emeritus]

Not quite correct

http://www.snopes.com...business/barcodes.asp

[AB Editor]

Beat me to it Jack... :)

You have to be careful with sharing information like this - it sometimes achieves the opposite result!

A snippet from the link:

Q: Does the EAN number indicate the country of origin of a product?

A: No it doesn't. The 3-digit prefix code indicates which numbering organization has allocated the bank of numbers to the company. For example, a company may have its headquarters in South Africa. The EAN organization in South Africa has the code "600," but all the products of the company may be manufactured in England. The English-made products would still have the "600" prefix code. The prefix code is a way to have 70-plus EAN member organizations issuing numbers without having to worry about duplicate numbers.

For example, if a Mexican company imported fruit from Guatemala, then packed and shipped that fruit to the United States, the country code portion of the final product's bar code would likely indicate an origin of Mexico rather than Guatemala. It may be the case that in some parts of the world there is a fair degree of correlation between assignment of bar codes and product origins (i.e., in some countries the preponderance of bar code assignments may apply to domestic products), but for surefire product origin identification consumers must rely upon other methods. In determining the country of origin of a product sold in the U.S., consumers should still look for "Made in [country name]" labels on the packaging.