Post by justjohn on Nov 19, 2008 4:48:52 GMT -7
Can you determine the origin (country) of a product from the barcode ?
Bar codes are something most of us never think about. If you look in your fridge or pantry right now, you will find that just about every package you see has a bar code printed on it. In fact, nearly every item that you buy in a grocery shop, supermarket or superstore has a bar code on it somewhere.
Bar codes were first used commercially in 1966, but it was soon realised 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 improved and led to the Universal Product Code (UPC) symbol set. To this very day, this standard is used in the United States and Canada . In June of 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 Wrigley's Gum.
The Universal Product Code was the first bar code symbology widely adopted. Its birth is usually set at 3 April 1973, when the grocery industry formally established UPC as the standard bar code symbology for product marking. Foreign interest in UPC led to the adoption of the EAN (European Article Numbering) code format, similar to UPC, in December 1976.
Currently, 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 USA 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 US and Canada to double-label their products.
The first 2 (sometimes 3) digits, which are called the “flag”, indicate in what country the bar code was issued. This “flag” does not tell you, however, in what country the product was produced.
The country codes used are :
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)