Barcode of the country of manufacture (barcode, English barcode) - a picture with alternating stripes of black and white. Width and length are different. The numbers are printed below. Each has its own meaning. After reviewing them, you can find out important information about the product. Codes were invented for simplified accounting of all products in warehouses and stores. The scanner is hovering over the code. The read information goes to the computer. All food products, electronic appliances, books, clothes, shoes have a barcode printed. It is issued on the basis of all characteristics of the product and its quality.
From barcode history
American graduate students from Philadelphia, Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver, in 1948 developed a device that reads commodity data. They could not obtain a patent for development only in October 1952. In 1974, chewing gum was the first product on which the barcode was tested. It took manufacturers less than a year for most products to acquire their own unique code.
Using barcodes of manufacturing countries provides the ability to:
- trading organizations to reduce time for customer service;
- buyers - quickly make payments for purchases;
- enterprise employees - speed up the inventory process.
Barcodes and their types
In 1977, the European Article Numbering (EAN) was created. She is engaged in barcode assignment. According to the EAN-13 standard, barcodes of producing countries contain 13 digits. They encoded information about the manufacturer. If the product is small, then an eight-digit code is used - EAN-8.
Information is encoded in two ways: two-dimensional and linear.
Two-dimensional - are read horizontally and vertically. They contain a large amount of information.
Linear - read from left to right. Labeling is read by low-cost scanners that use stores and pharmacies.
Why do I need to know information about the country of origin?
If you think that the information contained in the barcodes of producing countries is needed only by trade workers, then you are mistaken.
When buying medicines, food, cosmetics or household chemicals, you must protect yourself and your loved ones from counterfeit products and unscrupulous producers. It is necessary to know the country of the manufacturer when buying an expensive exclusive item. But you need to be aware that the presence of a bar code does not affect the quality of the goods. But it does not always coincide with the implementing country. But this does not mean that the products were falsified.
Reasons for mismatch:
- The registration and production code were issued in another country.
- The product produced a subsidiary.
- Products and licenses obtained in different countries.
- The founders of production are enterprises from several states.
Decoding of barcodes of manufacturing countries
EAN-13:
- 2-3 first digits of the barcode - country code (not the country of origin).
- 4-5 digits - manufacturer code.
- 4-5 digits - product code.
- The latter is a check digit.
- > - the product is certified.
EAN-8:
- The first, second, third digits - the code of different countries.
- The eighth digit is the control.
Product code
Within its production organization assigns a unique code to each product. In these figures, the necessary information is encoded to determine the product:
- the first digit is the name of the product;
- the second digit is the properties;
- the third digit is dimensions, mass;
- the fourth digit is the composition;
- the fifth digit is the color (not always indicated).
Real product or fake
At the checkout, the scanner decrypts the barcode of the country of origin and other information, and then displays it on the monitor screen. You do not see anything. To make sure that the product you are purchasing is genuine, you need to learn how to perform small mathematical operations. We will analyze them step by step.
Let's say the barcode on the package is 4620000632177
- We make the addition of even numbers: 6 + 0 + 0 + 6 + 2 + 7 = 21.
- Multiply the resulting number by 3: 21x3 = 63.
- We make the addition of odd numbers (without the last): 4 + 2 + 0 + 0 + 3 + 1 = 10.
- We make the addition of answers from 2 and 3 points: 63 + 10 = 73.
- We remove dozens: we get 3.
- Subtract from 10 the answer from paragraph 5: 10-3 = 7.
The estimated number coincided with the control, which means that the product is not counterfeit.
If the numbers do not match, it means that the goods were released by an unscrupulous manufacturer who violates the law.
How to determine the country of manufacture by barcode?
Information can be found in the table.
The country of origin is determined by a special table. It’s hard to remember all the data. You can print the table and put it in your wallet.
There are mobile applications Barcode Scanner (for Android) or Qrafter (for iPhone / iPad), which quickly help you decrypt the barcode of producing countries.
It’s easy to work with them. Install the program, open, point the camera at the barcode. Then follow the link to Google and find all the necessary information.
GEPIR (Global Electronic Party Information Registry) is an Internet resource that identifies a product. To get all the manufacturer’s contact information, you need to enter the product barcode. More than a million producers from all countries offer access to their data.
Russian barcodes
In Russia, the use of bar codes has been carried out since 1990. At the moment, in all major cities, supermarkets have devices for reading them. In Russia, the EAN 13 system is used in retail trade. The barcode is also assigned to imported products if the manufacturer is registered in Russia.
On Russian barcodes, numbers follow in the sequence 4 6 0. Codes with numbers from 460 to 469 are reserved for the country.
What does a barcode look like on a product?
It is applied by printing at the stage of packaging manufacture. Glue-based labels are sometimes used. There are stores that use their own markings, which reduces the opportunity to know the real manufacturer of the products. The barcode is printed on the packaging on the back in the lower right corner. The distance from the edge is 20 mm. Allowed location on the side wall.