Why are the scanning results different for the same product barcode?
“As the saying goes, there is no banquet without wine. On such an important day as the Spring Festival, gathering with family and friends, having a reunion dinner, and talking about wine as a family, this kind of New Year’s taste will make people reminisce for a long time.” One day of the Spring Festival holiday, While eating at home, Uncle Chen from Tianjin said with a smile while holding a glass of wine.
On the second day of the lunar new year, Uncle Chen went to the supermarket to buy a few bottles of liquor and had a dinner with his family and friends. Before eating, the family found that the product barcode was printed on the outer packaging, so they took out their mobile phone to scan. Among them, Uncle Chen’s son used a code scanning software to scan, and it showed that “no relevant product information was found”. Uncle Chen’s daughter used the WeChat “Barcode Traceability” applet to scan, and displayed relevant information such as the product name, company, address, and barcode status. The same mobile phone scans, but the reading results are different, why is this?
It turns out that “Barcode Traceability” is an official applet developed by the China Article Numbering Center, and the information is directly filled in by the enterprise, which may be the reason for the two different reading results.
Coding expert Lao Ma explained: “According to the “Administrative Measures for Commodity Barcodes”, system members should compile commodity codes in accordance with relevant national standards, and report the coding information through the China Commodity Information Service Platform. The liquor purchased by Uncle Chen, its production Enterprises, as members of the coding center system, have already logged into the platform to report the relevant coding information after coding their products. It is not difficult to understand why consumers can use the ‘barcode traceability’ applet to query and obtain product information accurately. Since some code scanning software applications may be third-party databases, there is no separate collection of product-related data, resulting in empty product information scanned by consumers.”
In view of this, Lao Ma recommends consumers to use the official website of the Code Center or the “Barcode Traceability” applet, “China Code” App and other channels to inquire about product information. “However, the product information read out is for reference only and cannot be directly used to judge product quality. It is also necessary to compare various factors such as brand, product packaging, and consumer reputation.” Lao Ma also reminded.
