Social media platforms have recently been flooded with posts suggesting that Israel altered its barcode number from 729 to 871, accompanied by calls for a boycott of Israeli products. However, India TV's Fact Check team conducted a thorough investigation, concluding that these claims are misleading. One widely shared caption on Facebook stated, "Israel has changed its barcode from 729 to 871 Barcode changed as the public was boycotting Israeli products." Similar messages circulated on other platforms.
To verify these assertions, the Fact Check team turned to GS1, the not-for-profit organisation responsible for assigning company prefixes for barcodes. GS1 describes the prefix as a "unique number that will identify your company as the owner of your barcode and the product it’s on." The team discovered that GS1 Israel continues to issue the prefix 729, while 871 is one of the prefixes allocated by GS1 Netherlands. No evidence was found to support the claim of a barcode prefix change for either country.
Crucially, GS1 emphasised that its prefixes do not disclose the product's country of origin. Companies using GS1 prefixes can manufacture products anywhere globally, making the prefix an identifier of ownership rather than a marker of manufacturing location.
In further clarification, the GS1 FAQ section explicitly stated, "An EAN-13 barcode number always starts with the GS1 Prefix of the GS1 Member Organisation that allocated the barcode number. 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."
This thorough investigation debunks the circulating misinformation, highlighting the importance of fact-checking in the era of social media-driven narratives. The purported change in barcode prefixes, as suggested by the viral posts, does not align with the information provided by GS1, the authoritative body responsible for barcode allocations.
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