[UncleJoe]

Got this in an email the other day and thought I'd pass it along.

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.

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.

[partdeux]

And wait until the china free trade zone is set up in the US

[timmie]

thanks for posting this.

[NaeKid]

I had to check on that by looking at some product-boxes in my house.

The first one I looked at is a "Jiffy SeedStarter greenhouse" with a bar-code number of 0 67736 10008 4 - it states right on the package that it is a product of USA and Canada.

Then I grabbed another package for my WII remote and checked its bar-code. Its number is 0 45496 89033 9 and right on the box it states that it is made in China ...



Am I reading the bar-codes wrong?

[dirtgrrl]

Originally Posted by NaeKid

I had to check on that by looking at some product-boxes in my house.

The first one I looked at is a "Jiffy SeedStarter greenhouse" with a bar-code number of 0 67736 10008 4 - it states right on the package that it is a product of USA and Canada.

Then I grabbed another package for my WII remote and checked its bar-code. Its number is 0 45496 89033 9 and right on the box it states that it is made in China ...



Am I reading the bar-codes wrong?

The codes refer to where the company is based, not where the goods are manufactured. An American company manufacturing in China will have an American code. So don't count on it to tell you anything. If in doubt, I don't buy it.

[cqp33]

All good info, thanks for clearing that up dirtgrrl! I am more aware today than ever and try to buy products made in the US or Canada as much as possible. Hard to find electronic products made on the this side of the world any more though! One of the biggest problems I think we may face one day is if we are cut off from the other side some how one day! Who would be able to tool any plant to produce anything any more? I am sure we are no where near the industrial might we were during WWII, let alone find someone willing to actually do the work any more! I am pretty sure the most American made car is a Honda accord any more!

[UncleJoe]

Originally Posted by NaeKid

Am I reading the bar-codes wrong?

I'll have to look at some stuff. I didn't do any research on it, just copied it from my mail.

[stayingthegame]

how many of our electronics do we really need. phone ? send me a letter. tv ? read a book, do a hobby. radio/ipod ? sing, play an instrument. GPS ? if I don't know where I am going, why do you want to know where I am.

[Davarm]

Since the topic of barcodes is on the table, any of you guys ever hear the "Rumors" that the UPC bar codes have the "666" mark of the beast stuff associated with it?

I always blew it off as being........you can figure that out. But, while working for a software company that had projects going on with bar code ID functions in them, it was pointed out to me that it is actually true.

Some programmer had a wild sense of humor when the codes were originally being designed, and put them in(UPC codes only). If you look at the barcode on a product from the grocery store you will see that it always starts with two thin lines, (6), with the same two thin lines in the middle of the group(usually extended below the rest of the lines), another (6), and the group is ended with a last set of the two lines, (6). The numbers are a formatting function and have no other use or value in product identification.

This only holds true ONLY for UPC (Universal Product Code) Bar Codes.

[JayJay]

This may be disinfo---like Naekid, months ago, when I received this email, I checked many of my clothes in my boxes of storage for collapse..new, still with tags, bar codes.
None matched-- undies, shoes, shirts, jeans, socks, shoelaces,etc.