from: http://www.food-info.net/uk/qa/qa-fp121.htm

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)

What does the number on a fruit sticker mean?

from http://rawearthliving.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/what-does-the-number-on-a-fruit-sticker-mean/

What does the number on a fruit sticker mean?

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

Editor’s Note: We’ve compiled info from 3 different sources to help uncover what many already know about what those little stickers on produce actually tell you- in our attempt to further help you as a consumer KNOW what you are eating and if it has been genetically modified…

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7 out of 10 items in grocery store shelves contain ingredients that have been genetically modified. Fruit and vegetables do not come with nutrition labels but they do have stickers (PLU – Price Look Up Code) which contain pertinent information.

Next time you decide to purchase that apple or cut a slice out of that melon, consider the PLU sticker. This sticker will tell you whether the fruit was organically grown, genetically modified, or produced with chemical fertilizers, herbicides or fungicides.

PLU stickers that have 4 digits and begin with a “3″ or “4″: produce is conventionally grown. This means that this produce was sprayed with weed killers and chemical pesticides.

PLU stickers that have 5-digits and start with “8″: produce was genetically engineered (man intervened by manipulating the genes to produce a larger or brighter colored food). This produce may have been chemically treated.

PLU stickers that have 5-digits and start with “9″: produce was raised organically. You can be sure that this produce was not treated with any chemicals.

If you see other variations of code on your produce, you can refer to the following website and look up the PLU code as well as other information regarding this topic: http://www.fruitsticker.com.

Note: the adhesive used to stick the PLU onto the fruit is edible but the sticker itself is not.

Having some origin coding would be great for seeing how far a particular fruit/vegetable traveled but that is something still hidden in our giant supermarkets.