Photo: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay
The post we are fact-checking falsely suggests that if the barcode of the product starts with the digits 729, that means that the product was manufactured in Israel, which according to the barcode assigning company is not true. The digit 729 just signifies that the barcode was allocated by an organization in Israel, but the product itself could have been produced anywhere in the world. Hence, these fist digits only show the country of origin of the barcode itself, writes Truthmeter.mk.
Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:
We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) sharing a photograph of a barcode starting with the digits 729, stating below the barcode that it was made in Israel (this is crossed off with red color), and warning that ”we are boycotting Israeli products therefore we need to remember the digit 729”. On one of the sides, the barcode is “smudged”, appearing like traces of blood. The context of this post is a campaign implemented by social network groups from all over the world to boycott products from Israel due to the conflict in Gaza where more than 10 thousand civilians were killed, including 4 thousand children.
Also, in course of the attack carried out by Hamas on Israel on 7 October, 1400 persons were killed and more than 240 were taken hostage.
However, as specified by the fact-checkers at Full Fact, barcodes do not signify where a given product was manufactured.
Barcodes originating from Israel can start with 729, but that does not mean that those products were manufactured in Israel. Not all companies for products or companies based in Israel have this code. The number of the barcode starting with 729 indicates that the barcode was assigned in Israel, but the product itself may not have been produced in Israel. Full Fake discovered a number of examples of products from companies that do not originate from Israel but start with 729. The number 729 at the beginning of the barcode is not a guarantee that the company that manufactured the product is based in Israel, they specified.
According to the non-profit organization GS1, which in the global framework provides barcodes, also claims that the prefix is not an indicator that the product was manufactured in a specific country or a specific manufacturer. The product could have been produced anywhere in the world.
According to their website, the number 729 at the beginning of the barcode is an indicator that the barcode was allocated by the Israeli branch of the non-profit organization GS1. However, as explained by GS1, that does not mean that the product was made or produced in Israel.
Full Fact found an example of a company in Israel selling barcodes and products whose barcodes start with 07. On its website, the company states the following:
Barcode numbers do not say anything about the country of origin of the product or the company. The first digits of a barcode only show the country of origin of the barcode number. Our numbers start with 07, which shows that the number comes from the USA.
Barcode1 UK, a barcode selling company, states the following:
Many people mistakenly believe that the first few digits of the barcode numbers show the country of origin of the product. However, the barcode number says nothing accurate about the country of origin of the product. The only thing that these first few digits show is the country of origin of the barcode number itself. So, in reality, products that come from any specific country can have any barcode number on them.
Due to all of the above-noted facts, we assess the fact-checked post as untrue. The barcode starting with 729 does not signify the country that produced the product, but the country that allocated the barcode. On the other hand, the product can be manufactured by any country in the world.
