Check UPC is a search engine for UPC / EAN (European Article Number) barcodes.  Enter a UPC code, and they show you the product, or look up a product’s UPC code just by entering its name.

Thousands of new codes are added daily by volunteers and their search engine bot.  What shall we try?

Go take a look in your pantry or fridge, you’ll see that just about everything there has a UPC barcode graphic printer on the package. In fact, almost every single product that you buy from a store has one of these barcodes on the cover.

Universal Product Codes (UPCs) were initially invented for grocery stores to help speed up the lines at the checkout counters and also to keep track of product inventory. Due to its success, the protocol was soon adopted for all other retails products as well.

UPC codes are assigned by the UCC (Uniform Code Council). The process of obtaining a barcode starts with manufacturers, who have to apply for a manufacturer code with the UCC. The Uniform Code Council charges manufacturers a yearly fee for being able to acquire barcodes.

Every manufacturer gets their own unique 6-digit manufacturer code that identifies them.  Every single item that a manufacturer makes, including variations in sizes, is given a unique item number. For example, a 1 liter bottle of Pepsi would have a different item number from a 500ml can of Pepsi.

There you have it. Now you know what UPC barcodes are and how to search for them!

For more information on barcodes, check out Universal Product Code at Wikipedia.com

Thanks to Emmanuel for this great tip!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 8:55 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.