None of the products listed are from Israel. Baseless claims that barcode numbers starting with ‘729’ are Israel products.
Claim
Boycott the products that have a barcode starting with 729 as they are Israel products.
Boycott Israel Products – KFC, McDonalds, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Gucci, KitKat, Maggi, Oreo, Lays, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Pepsi, Sprite, Motorola, HP, Nestle, Revlon and Dove.
Rating
Explanation
After the start of Israel-Hamas war, some countries extended their support to Israel and some to Palestine. Multiple videos claiming to be recorded during the war are being circulated out of which most of them are not really related to the clash. Meanwhile, posts with ‘boycott Israel’ and ‘boycott Israel products’ are trending on social media. These posts carry images and videos showing multiple products claiming to be from Israel.
The product list in the viral posts has products including KFC, McDonalds, Nike, Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Gucci, KitKat, Maggi, Oreo, Lays, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Pepsi, Sprite, Motorola, HP, Nestle, Revlon and Dove. An image showing a 13-digit barcode starting with ‘729’ is also shared claiming that the products with such barcodes are Israel products and that they are to be avoided. Some of the posts with such a claim can be seen here, here and here.
What is the truth?
When searching with relevant keywords we found that the barcode starting with ‘729’ does not represent the country that the product was manufactured. And it is also found none of the products listed originated in Israel.
Barcode starting with ‘729’
GS1 is a not-for-profit information standards organisation. GS1 utilises several types of barcodes to satisfy different business requirements. EAN-13 was initially introduced by GS1. EAN-13 barcode number always starts with the GS1 prefix. The prefix ‘729’ describes ‘GS1 Israel’.
However, the GS1 prefix does not show the country of origin of the product. It also does not represent the country in which it is manufactured. It denotes the country that allocated the barcode. It only indicates the GS1 member country where the company has its registration. The product may have been produced anywhere in the world.
For example, let us review the barcode number for Lay’s Chips which is being sold in India. PepsiCo, an American multinational is the wholly owned subsidiary of Lay’s brand. But the barcode starts with the prefix ‘890’ which describes GS1 India.
This is because the product is manufactured by PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. that falls under the jurisdiction of India.
This is just an example to show that the GS1 prefix just represents the country in which the company is registered. The product’s founding company may have been in different location and the manufacturing of the products may also have been in a different location.
Now, let us check the products claimed to be Israel products in the viral posts. A simple Google search reveals the country in which the products are founded. Most of the companies of the products listed in the viral post including KFC, McDonalds, Nike,Tommy Hilfiger, Oreo, Lays, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Motorol, HP, Revlon, Dove are American based companies. Adidas originated in Bavaria, Germany, Gucci in Florence, Ital, KitKat in EnglanI, Red Bull in Austri, Nestle and Maggi – Switzerland. Sprite was developed in West Germany and introduced in the US. None of the companies listed in the viral posts are from Israel.
Conclusion
It is found that ‘boycott Israel products’ posts are baseless as the products listed are not from Israel. Moreover, not all the companies of the products that have barcode numbers starting with ‘729’ originated from Israel or manufactured products in Israel.
