How to Read Country of Origin Bar Code Labeling

 

 

You may have heard that it is possible to discern a product’s country of manufacture by reading a three or four digit country code at the beginning of its bar code number. Such country codes do in fact exist, and the first three digits of a bar code do indeed correspond to a specific country or region. However, what this indicates is not the location of the product’s manufacture, but the location of the company that assigned the code. For example, an American toy company whose products are made in China, then shipped to the United States for distribution, will use an American country code.