Recently I received an email about barcode. You know the vertical black and white stripe on most of the packaging nowadays.

The email is about the contamination of melamine in goods especially foods from China. It tells you how to compare goods produced by China and Taiwan by looking at the barcode numbers. It says that the first 3 numbers of the barcode represents the country of origin.

I did not believe it straight away… so I did some search about international barcode standard. Surprise… surprise… it is true after all. But my search also found that it is true that the first 3 numbers represents which country the barcode REGISTRED but it doesn’t mean the goods are produced or manufactured in that country. The owner of the barcode is the country as stated in the first 3 numbers of the barcode, but the goods can be manufactured in other places or countries.

So, goods’ barcode with first 3 numbers of 471, which represent Taiwan might not be necessary manufactured in Taiwan… but it could be manufactured in Malaysia (955), Indonesia (899) or worse China (690 – 695) itself.

My point is, don’t just look at the barcode to compare the origin of the goods… you must also look at the label ‘Made In …’

Like when you travel abroad, for instant to USA, when you enter shops hoping to get ‘Made In USA’ goods… forget it, big chance you will find goods as ‘Made In Malaysia’ 😀

So while abroad, if you plan to use barcode as your reference alone, don’t… and as for safety while abroad… get a travel medical insurance, who knows you accidentally consumed melamine in big amount while you are abroad traveling.

Some notable barcodes…
Singapore – 888
Mongolia – 865

And here are the rest of the barcodes which represent the country of origin…

000-019 USA & Canada
020-029 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
030-039 USA & Canada
040-049 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
050-059 Coupons
060-139 USA & Canada
200-299 reserved for local use (store/warehouse)
300-379 France
380 Bulgaria
383 Slovenija
385 Croatia
387  BIH (Bosnia-Herzegovina)
400-440 Germany
450-459 Japan
460-469 Russian Federation
470 Kyrgyzstan
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
490-499 Japan
500-509 UK
520 Greece
528 Lebanon
529 Cyprus
531 Macedonia
535 Malta
539 Ireland
540-549 Belgium & Luxembourg
560 Portugal
569 Iceland
570-579 Denmark
590 Poland
594 Romania
599 Hungary
600-601 South Africa
608 Bahrain
609 Mauritius
611 Morocco
613 Algeria
619 Tunisia
621 Syria
622 Egypt
624 Libya
625 Jordan
626 Iran
627 Kuwait
628 Saudi Arabia
629 Emirates
640-649 Finland
690-695 China
700-709 Norway
729 Israel
730-739 Sweden
740 Guatemala
741 El Salvador
742 Honduras / Nicaragua
744 Costa Rica
745 Panama
746 Republica Dominicana
750 Mexico
754-755 Canada
759 Venezuela
760-769 Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera
770 Colombia
773 Uruguay
775 Peru
777 Bolivia
779 Argentina
780 Chile
784 Paraguay
786 Ecuador
789-790 Brasil
800-839 Italy
840-849 Spain
850 Cuba
858 Slovakia
859 Czech
860 YU (Serbia & Montenegro)
865 Mongolia
867 North Korea
869 Turkey
870-879 Netherlands
880 South Korea
884 Cambodia
885 Thailand
888 Singapore
890 India
893 Vietnam
899 Indonesia
900-919 Austria
930-939 Australia
940-949 New Zealand
950 Head Office
955 Malaysia
958 Macau
977 Serial publications (ISSN)
978-979 Bookland (ISBN)
980 Refund receipts
981-982 Common Currency Coupons
990-999 Coupons