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Barcodes on Bottles

As mentioned elsewhere, MBL catalogues the bottles by the country they are filled in. And the barcodes on many modern bottles usually identify where the bottle was filled. This is not necessarily where the contents of the bottle were made. It is very common, for spirits especially, to be distilled in one country, shipped in bulk, then bottled in another. The bottle may well have an importer's label on for a third country. Importer labels fool many collectors into thinking the importer filled the bottle. And a statement such as "Produce of France" is also very misleading if you are looking for where the bottle was filled.

We used think that the barcode was the the ultimate test as to where the bottle comes from, however, we have been puzzled by the disparity on some bottles between what the text says and what the barcode appears to say (see the 4th example below). This can throw up some surprises and, as the photos MBL gets often do not show the barcode, we will at times have got this wrong. An example of how difficult this can be would be Pinnacle Vodka (owned by Beam Suntory). These are currently listed under the USA but all the vodka is made in France and the plain vodka is bottled in France. We thought that the flavoured vodkas were all bottled in the US but now know that some were bottled in the UK. At time of writing we have not been able to determine which is which for most of them and so, for the time being, all are still under the US (other than the plain vodka, which is catalogued under France). Confused? It gets worse!

The following is a list of the first three barcode numbers (the prefix) and what countries they represent, together with a reverse look-up table so that you can see all barcodes nominally assigned to each country. Confusingly some countries share barcode prefixes, notably the US and Canada. To read all barcodes correctly you must read the number on the far left, away from the main barcode, as the first digit. This is often in smaller print. If this is not there it is an assumed zero, which makes all of these US/Canada bottles.

As an example the first picture shows a barcode of 085, which is US/Canada, or probably is - see below). The second bottle is currently assumed to be the US but we could be wrong as we cannot find 679 listed as assigned to any country. 315 appears to show the bottle was made in France, despite the Chinese writing, and other writing on the label seems to confirm this. Example 4 is the exception that shows that the system is not perfect. It clearly says on the label that it was "Produced and Bottled in Denmark" but it carries a US/Canada barcode. We are grateful to John of Barcodes Limited, New Zealand for the following information. "Unfortunately the country code doesn't correspond with the country of origin of the products. It really just indicates which GS1 organisation the barcode numbers originally came from. Companies with products from all over the world may just have one GS1 membership - or in the case of companies like ourselves, all of our barcodes come from GS1-USA, however we sell everywhere in the world." Despite this, the vast majority of barcodes we have seen on bottles do relate to the country where the bottling took place (as opposed to where the liquor was distilled - if different) but attention should be paid to other information on the bottle.



PrefixesCountryCountryPrefixes
000 - 019USA & CanadaAlbania530
020 - 029Does not appear on retail productsAlgeria613
030 - 039USAArgentina779
040 - 049Does not appear on retail productsArmenia485
050 - 059Used for coupons onlyAustralia930 - 939
060 - 139USA & CanadaAustria900 - 919
141FranceAzerbaijan476
200 - 299Does not appear on retail productsBahrain608
300 - 379FranceBelarus481
380BulgariaBelgium & Luxembourg540 - 549
383SloveniaBolivia777
385CroatiaBosnia-Herzegovina387
387Bosnia-HerzegovinaBrazil789 - 790
400 - 440GermanyBulgaria380
450 - 459JapanCambodia884
460 - 469RussiaCanada754 - 755
470KurdistanCanadasee also USA & Canada
471TaiwanChile780
474EstoniaChina690 - 695
475LatviaColombia770
476AzerbaijanCosta Rica744
477LithuaniaCroatia385
478UzbekistanCuba850
479Sri LankaCyprus529
480PhilippinesCzech Republic859
481BelarusDenmark570 - 579
482UkraineDominican Republic476
484MoldovaEcuador786
485ArmeniaEgypt622
486GeorgiaEl Salvador471
487KazakhstanEstonia474
489Hong KongFinland640 - 649
490 - 499JapanFrance141, 300 - 379, 895 - 896
500 - 509UKGeorgia486
520GreeceGermany400 - 440
528LebanonGhana603
529CyprusGreece520
530AlbaniaGuatemala740
531MacedoniaHonduras742
535MaltaHong Kong489
539IrelandHungary599
540 - 549Belgium & LuxembourgIceland569
560PortugalIndia890
569IcelandIndonesia899
570 - 579DenmarkIran626
590PolandIreland539
594RomaniaIsrael729
599HungaryItaly800 - 829
600-601South AfricaIvory Coast618
603GhanaJapan450 - 459, 490 - 499
608BahrainJordan625
609MauritiusKazakhstan487
611MoroccoKenya616
613AlgeriaKurdistan470
616KenyaKuwait627
618Ivory CoastLatvia475
619TunisiaLebanon528
621SyriaLibya624
622EgyptLithuania477
624LibyaLuxembourgsee Belgium & Luxembourg
625JordanMacao589
626IranMacedonia531
627KuwaitMalaysia955
628Saudi ArabiaMalta535
629United Arab EmiratesMauritius609
640 - 649FinlandMexico750
690 - 695ChinaMoldova486, 699
699Moldova..
700 - 709NorwayMongolia865
729IsraelMorocco611
730 - 739SwedenNetherlands633, 721, 857, 870 - 879, 897
740GuatemalaNew Zealand940 - 949
741El SalvadorNicaragua743
742HondurasNorth Korea867
743NicaraguaNorway700 - 709
744Costa RicaPanama745
745PanamaParaguay784
746Dominican RepublicPeru775
750MexicoPhilippines480
754 - 755CanadaPoland590
759VenezuelaPortugal560
760 - 769SwitzerlandRomania594
770ColombiaRussia460 - 469
773UruguaySaudi Arabia628
775PeruSerbia & Montenegro860
777BoliviaSingapore888
779ArgentinaSlovakia858
780ChileSlovenia383
777BoliviaSouth Africa600 - 601
779ArgentinaSouth Korea880
780ChileSpain840 - 849
784ParaguaySri Lanka479
786EcuadorSweden730 - 739
789 - 790BrazilSwitzerland760 - 769
793United States & CanadaSyria621
800 - 829ItalyTaiwan471
835United States & CanadaThailand885
840 - 849SpainTunisia619
850CubaTurkey868 - 869
851USA & CanadaUK500 - 509
858SlovakiaUkraine482, 891
859Czech RepublicUnited Arab Emirates629
860Serbia & MontenegroUruguay773
865MongoliaUnited States030 - 039
867North KoreaUnited States & Canada000 - 019, 060 - 139, 793, 835, 851
868 - 869TurkeyUzbekistan478
870 - 879NetherlandsVenezuela759
880South KoreaVietnam893
884Cambodia
885Thailand
888Singapore
890India
891Ukraine
893Vietnam
895 - 896France
899Indonesia
900 - 919Austria
930 - 939Australia
940 - 949New Zealand
955Malaysia
958Macau




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