Barcodes starting with 729, 841, 871 do not prove goods were made in Israel | Fact check

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Barcodes beginning with 729, 841 and 871 denote goods from Israel

A Dec. 11 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims to show how to identify products from Israel by looking at the first three digits below a barcode.

“Israel barcode numbers 729, 841, 871. Boycott Israeli products,” the post reads in all capital letters.

It was shared more than 300 times in three days.

More from the USA TODAY Fact-Check Team:

Our rating: Partly false

Two of the three barcode prefixes listed in the post are not issued to companies registered in Israel. The 729 prefix is issued to companies registered in Israel, although goods with that prefix can still be manufactured anywhere in the world.h

Codes do not indicate origin of products

The Israel-Hamas war has sparked numerous calls for boycotts on social media, many involving false information. Companies supposedly showing allegiance to Palestinians or Israelis have both been targeted.

This claim suggests social media users look for the prefixes on barcodes to know which products to avoid if they are boycotting Israeli goods. The number under the black and white barcode is a unique identifier for a product.

But GS1, a nonprofit standards organization that provides the numbers, explicitly says on its website that the prefixes cannot be used to determine a product's country of origin.

“The GS1 Prefix does not indicate that the product was manufactured in a specific country or by a specific manufacturer; it may have been produced anywhere in the world,” the page says. The code only indicates the country from which the barcode was allocated.

Fact check: Fact check: Bar code's first digits do not reveal product's country of origin

GS1 publishes a prefix list that shows that companies registered in Israel are issued numbers starting with 729, which could mean they are Israel-based.

However, barcodes starting with 841 and 871 are allocated from Spain and the Netherlands, respectively.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the claim for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

GS1, accessed Dec. 14, GS1 Company Prefix

GS1, created Nov. 20, 2015, FAQ Does the GS1 Prefix (first 3 digits of the EAN-13 barcode number) show the country of origin?

USA TODAY, July 23, 2020, Fact check: Bar code's first digits do not reveal product's country of origin

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Barcodes don't prove which country products come from | Fact check