The bar code 8 is the beginning of genetically modified foods? ! - Those things hidden on the package

[China Packaging Network News] Recently, an article titled "The bar code that began with 8 is genetically modified food" has spread to the Internet. The Information Times reporter asked for confirmation from various sources that the statement was not accurate. The digits at the beginning of the bar code represent the region rather than the product, but at present, there is no mandatory standard for the product bar code. In addition, genetically modified foods must be stated in the outer packaging. Consumers can identify whether the product is genetically modified through packaging.
Miss Chua, who is in charge of product procurement at a large-scale enterprise in Guangzhou, stated that the first three digits of the bar code are representative of the country or region, indicating which country, region, and company the product came from. For example, “69” generally refers to domestic production and packaging products. , and a single number "8" does not specifically refer to which products. According to the classification of regional codes, countries with 8 prefix codes can be distinguished. For example, Italy is “80-83”, Spain is “84”, Netherlands is “87”, and South Korea is “88”.
It was learned from the Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration that at present, there are no standards and regulations and regulations for barcodes on food packaging in China. According to national standards, there are no strong rules for the presence or absence of barcodes in products, so the barcodes on the packaging are It is all printed by the company itself to facilitate the management, identification and tracking of the company's systems. “Before the Security Bureau wanted to promote it, but it was not carried out because it was too expensive,” said Zhang Gang (a pseudonym), a senior engineer in the field of food packaging, in an interview with an Information Times reporter.
The reporter consulted the “Administrative Measures for Commodity Barcodes” issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, and did not find the relevant provisions of the bar code at the beginning of the bar code, nor did it find out the regulations related to barcoding of products and genetic modification.
However, AQSIQ's "Regulations on the Administration of Food Labeling" stipulates that genetically modified foods or products containing legal genetically modified raw materials must have a Chinese description on the label.
If a certain brand of edible oil uses genetically modified soybeans, it will be clearly marked on the ingredient list: “Soybean oil—processed raw materials are genetically modified soybeans” and “rapeseed oil—processed raw materials are genetically modified rapeseeds”. The bar codes for these products also do not begin with "8" but with "69".