Barcode country prefix (GS1 prefix)

How to read it

GS1’s Global Office gives each national member organisation a range of prefixes, and that organisation licenses company prefixes from its range to the businesses that join it. So 690 to 699 belong to GS1 China, 890 to GS1 India, and 001 to 019, 030 to 039 and 060 to 139 to GS1 US. A 12-digit UPC has an implied zero in front: GS1’s example 614141234561 has the prefix 061, not 614. GS1’s prefix list explains why the prefix says nothing about origin: since companies can manufacture products anywhere in the world, GS1 Prefixes do not identify the country of origin for a given product. Its General Specifications say the same of the whole company prefix, which makes the number unique worldwide but does not identify the origin of the item.

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Is a barcode starting with 690 made in China?

Not necessarily. PolitiFact checked a viral image making that claim in April 2020 and rated it Mostly False: 690 to 699 are GS1 China’s, but that doesn’t mean products with those prefixes are made there. It traced the claim to a 2008 email chain and noted that most products have written labels saying where they were made, such as Made in PRC.

Why some guides call it a country code

The Library of Congress’s page on serial barcodes says the first two or three digits of an EAN designate a country, and Keyence’s barcode guide calls them the EAN country code, as a manufacturer applies to the code centre of its own country. Both describe who issues the number. GS1, which runs the system, is the one that says the number doesn’t tell you where the goods came from.

Prefixes that aren’t countries

977 is serial publications (ISSN), 978 and 979 are books (Bookland), and 952 is set aside for demonstrations and examples, which is why the drawing uses it. Numbers beginning 20 to 29 are printed by shops themselves (EAN-13 barcode).

Where a country of origin can go

GS1’s system does have a field for it, separate from the product number: Application Identifier (422), which holds the ISO country code of the country of origin of the trade item.