Made in China

[Speed57]

ALWAYS READ THE LABELS ON THE FOODS YOU BUY--NO MATTER WHAT THE FRONT OF THE BOX OR PACKAGE SAYS, TURN IT OVER AND READ THE BACK---CAREFULLY!

With all the food and pet products now coming from China , it is best to make sure you read label at the grocery store and especially Walmart when buying food products.

Many products no longer show where they were made, only give where the distributor is located.

It is important to read the bar code to track it's origin.

How to read Bar Codes .... interesting!

This may be useful to know when grocery shopping, if it's a concern to you.

GREAT WAY TO "BUY USA & CANADA " AND NOT FROM CHINA!

The whole world is concerned about China-made "black hearted goods".

Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China ?

If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA.

471 is Made in Taiwan .

This is our right to know, but the government and related departments 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 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 USA & CANADIAN MADE by watching for "0"at the beginning of the number.

[Nadita]

Thanks for the post. I will start looking at the labels

[dip stick]

My wife and I refuse to buy made in China products

[BruceV]

Thanks for the post I've been screaming to my friends and family about this stuff for years. Falls to death ears. If we want more American jobs .... this is the first place to start! Don't like Donald Trump that well .... but his arguement of placing a tarriff or fee on all goods imported from China... would bring jobs back as well.China meaaea with its currency in favor for themselves... pays true employees less which moves our companys all over seas and then sells us their crap. Its a win win for them!

[Atheist]

What about numbers outside of the range you gave. I am looking at a heart rate monitor that the first three numbers are 663.

[Weapon X]

ALWAYS READ THE LABELS ON THE FOODS YOU BUY--NO MATTER WHAT THE FRONT OF THE BOX OR PACKAGE SAYS, TURN IT OVER AND READ THE BACK---CAREFULLY!

With all the food and pet products now coming from China , it is best to make sure you read label at the grocery store and especially Walmart when buying food products.

Many products no longer show where they were made, only give where the distributor is located.

It is important to read the bar code to track it's origin.

How to read Bar Codes .... interesting!

This may be useful to know when grocery shopping, if it's a concern to you.

GREAT WAY TO "BUY USA & CANADA " AND NOT FROM CHINA!

The whole world is concerned about China-made "black hearted goods".

Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China ?

If the first 3 digits of the barcode are 690 691 or 692, the product is MADE IN CHINA.

471 is Made in Taiwan .

This is our right to know, but the government and related departments 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 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 USA & CANADIAN MADE by watching for "0"at the beginning of the number.

Can you please indicte the origin of this article?

[kiteman]

While doing my research on this subject, I've come across this email before. I had high hopes that the process was as simple as this email makes it seem, but unfortunately it's not. The first three digits indiacate the country the bar code was issued in, not where the product was manufactured. Below is an article and link about this from a website I did my research at. I've also included the links as they are in the article since they wouldn't copy in.

Source:

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/product-bar-codes.shtml

Product Barcode Country Identification

Outline

Email 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.

Detailed Analysis

This email claims that consumers can find out which country a product was manufactured in by examining the product's barcode. According to the message, the first three digits of the product barcode identify where the product was made. It suggests that concerned consumers could thus easily identify products made in countries with a dubious reputation for contaminated or dangerous products such as China by matching the first three barcode digits to a country list included in the message.

However, the information in the message is quite misleading.

The first three digits of European Article Number (EAN) barcodes are known as the manufacturing code and they do indicate which EAN numbering authority allocated a particular set of numbers. Every country that uses the EAN system has its own numbering authority which is responsible for assigning manufacturer codes for companies within its jurisdiction. These codes are sometimes referred to as "country codes". Thus, at first take, the information in the message may seem valid.

However, in reality, this is not the case. An FAQ published on bar code information website Bar Code 1 explains:

Does the barcode number indicate the country of origin of a product?

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 it's 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.

This information is confirmed on a barcode FAQ published on global standards organization, GS1's website: FAQ

A GTIN starts with the GS1 Prefix of the GS1 Member Organisation that allocated a GS1 Company Prefix to a company to allow them to generate GTINs and bar code their products. This does not mean that the product was manufactured in a specific country or by a specific manufacturer, it may have been produced anywhere in the world.

Thus, while the first three digits of the product barcode may sometimes indicate where the product was manufactured, it will not always do so. For example, a barcode that has 690 as the first three digits indicates that the barcode was assigned by the Chinese EAN numbering authority. However, it does not necessarily mean that the product was actually manufactured in China.

Therefore, the advice given in this email is actually rather pointless. The information in the email would only be useful to consumers if the prefix invariably indicated where a product was manufactured. The fact that the barcode prefix is not a reliable and constant method of determining a product's country of manufacture means that, while the information in the email may be interesting, it is actually of little practical value.

You may be able to find out more information about a particular product by using a barcode search facility like the one provided on the GSI website. http://gepir.gs1.org/v31/xx/