Does the barcode allow to know the origin of a product?

According to a fairly widespread belief, the barcode of an item makes it possible to identify its country of origin. But in reality, determining the origin of a product is a very complex question, which it is not always possible to answer with certainty.

Whether by desire to consume locally or for the sake of transparency, it may be useful to know the origin of the products, food or other, purchased in stores. The label of the articles mentions a whole series of information, but rarely the country in which it was produced. In the trade, the products are in the vast majority of cases decked out with a barcode. This familiar figure corresponds to the representation of digital data, in the form of a symbol made up of bars and spaces whose thickness varies. There are thousands of different barcodes. They are intended for automated reading by an electronic sensor, the barcode reader.

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A false beliefAccording to a false belief, the first three digits of an EAN barcode (for European Article Numbering) would indicate the code of the country where the product was made. There is even a list of codes corresponding to the countries that can be found on certain sites such as that of the French consumer association, UFC Que Choisir. For example, codes 300 to 379 would correspond to France, 000 to 060 to the United States, codes 540 to 549 would be reserved for Belgium and Luxembourg. bars do NOT make it possible to identify the country of origin of a product", indicates Étienne Mignolet, one of the spokespersons of the SPF. Rather, these numbers give information about the process of issuing the code. Clearly, the first digits of a barcode can point to the origin… of a barcode, the country where it was registered. As the Belgian barcode site quite logically points out, a barcode can be used in any country in the world, regardless of the region in which it was created. But how do you know the origin of a product? In the European Union, in general, origin marking is voluntary, explains the Ministry of the Economy. Barring exceptions, the indication of origin does not have to appear on the label of goods. These exceptions concern cosmetics and some food products: such as fruit and vegetables, olive oil, honey or even certain meats. With regard to meats and in detail, the indication of origin exists only for fresh meat (chilled and frozen) from cattle and goats, sheep, pigs, and poultry. For the consumer protection association Test-achats, the labels are overloaded with sometimes useless information. The address of the manufacturer or distributor often says nothing about the country of origin of the animal. And the mention "produced in" rarely makes it possible to identify the country from which the ingredients come, but rather that of production. Test-Achats regrets that European regulations do not impose the indication of origin for processed meat , especially since it is enough to spice the meat for it to be considered as such. A flagrant lack of transparency, considers the association.