You've Got (Misinformation) Mail: on the China Milk Scare and the UPC

It is of no surprise that many of us receive forwarded e-mails that are supposed to give us "valuable" information about things that supposedly matter. They sometimes disguise as something of concern to everyone, especially when there's some really serious issues going on around the country or internationally. It turns out that, when examined or verified carefully, these e-mails turn out to be grand hoaxes or ill-conceived products of the imagination. Unfortunately, some of those messages actually give uneasiness or even panic to those who read them, and what make things worst is that they spread them like SARS to everyone in their address book.

One of the issues used by a certain forwarded e-mail I received is the China milk scare that gave everyone panic, paranoia, and a new word in our technical vocabulary: melamine. I might just have erased it because of how it was composed, but I got concerned with the contents and a possible misunderstanding it can bring to others. Here's the content of the e-mail:

For your info... Dear friends , The whole world is scared of China made "black hearted goods" Can you differentiate which one is made in Taiwan or China ? Let me tell u ..... the first 3 digits of the barcode 690.691.692 is made in CHINA . Do not ever buy it for your own good . 471 is Made in Taiwan (picture is corrupted) This is our right to know, but the government and related department never educate the public, therefore we have to rescue ourselves. Nowadays, Chinese businessmen know that consumers do not prefer products "made in china", so they won't show us which is made from which country. However, you may now refer to the barcode, if the first 3 digits is 690-692 then it is made in China 00~09 - USA & CANADA 30~37 - FRANCE 40~44 - GERMANY 49 - JAPAN 50 - UK

Well, if you received this e-mail and didn't really care verifying the contents, it would be pushing-the-panic-and-forward-button time for you. Your paranoia on milk and milk-based products would not be just from ignoring products with Chinese characters on them (which do NOT really tell you that it was really made in China - baka sa Binondo lang gawa 'yun...) or those marked Made in China. You might see yourself peeking at those bar codes and make a fool out of yourself.

Now, what is the TRUTH behind the bar code thing? According to the website of GS1, an international organization which has a system of standards that is "the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world", the international standard prefixes used for bar codes "do not provide identification of country of origin for a given product. They simply provide number capacity to different countries for assignment from that location to companies who apply. Those companies in turn may manufacture products anywhere in the world." For instance, a product with barcode prefix 690 does NOT indicate that it was MADE in China - it only indicates that China is the country that ISSUED the bar code. So, a company may be based in UK (prefix 50), but its products might actually be imported from China. By the way, the word "bar code" is already a passe phrase - the term used is actually the Universal Product Code (UPC).

Accuracy of information is important when dealing with serious concerns, so it's best that we verify the information passed to us, or check the reliability of the source of the information. Believing dubious information right away will just give us unnecessary worries or headaches.

P.S. To know more about GS1, the website is http://www.gs1.org/. FYI, the Philippines is a member of GS1 and the Philippine office is located in Pasig.