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 Marshs supermarket in Troy, Ohio, and the first product to have a bar code was Wrigleys 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
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 22:45:13 +0000