We want to buy only genuine and high quality products. A barcode is a kind of product authenticity cipher that can be easily deciphered.
Instructions
Step 1
Two types of barcodes are most commonly encountered: European 13-digit and American 12-digit. They are fully compatible with each other. Let us dwell on the first of them in more detail. In such a barcode, the first three digits are the country code, the next four are the manufacturer's code, the next 5 are the product code (they contain the product name, its consumer properties, dimensions, weight and color) and, finally, the last digit is called the control one. It is used to check the correctness of the code.
Step 2
A barcode by itself cannot guarantee the quality of a product, but at the same time it is an authenticity marker, since any officially registered product has its own unique number.
There is one interesting method of checking a barcode, as they say, in the field.
Let's say we have some kind of barcode. We take (counting from left to right) and add the numbers in even places. The resulting sum must be multiplied by 3. Next, add up all the numbers in odd places (we do not take the check digit). It turned out two sums. We add them up. In the resulting number, we discard the tens place and subtract 10 from what remains after this discarding. If the result is a check digit, then the barcode is genuine.
Step 3
A short list of major country codes:
000-139 USA
300-379 France
400-440 Germany
450-459 490-499 Japan
460-469 Russia
47909 Sri Lanka
481 Belarus
482 Ukraine
500-509 UK
520 Greece
540-549 Belgium, Luxembourg
560 Portugal
640-649 Finland
690-695 China
700-709 Norway
729 Israel
730-739 Sweden
750 Mexico
754-755 Canada
760-769 Switzerland
779 Argentinian
789-790 Brazil
800-839 Italy
840-849 Spain
850 Cuba
870-879 Netherlands
890 India
There are online services where you can enter the barcode you are interested in and verify the authenticity of the purchased product, a link to one of them is given below.
