别上中国进口食品标签的当（一）

 

在面对中国制造食品时，再高涨的爱国主义热情也会偃旗息鼓。加拿大华人在有其他购买选择时，往往会对来自中国大陆的进口食品避而远之。

Patriotism does not work well when it comes to purchasing foodstuffs produced in China. Canadians of Chinese origins are shying away from purchasing food items from Mainland China when given other choices. 

 

 

自从中国继毒奶粉后又接连爆出一系列食品污染事件，并且有媒体披露中国“乡下”的一些食品加工厂生产环境肮脏不堪，并在食品中持续添加有害化学物质后，加拿大消费者在超市购物时往往会远离中国制造，以免买到进口“黑心食品”。

Incidents in the past starting with tainted powered milk and newspaper exposed stories of “countryside” factories in China producing foodstuffs employing scrupulous methods using harmful chemicals under filthy conditions caused consumers to stay away from the possibility of getting imported “black hearted foods” while shopping in Canadian Supermarkets.

 

 

尽管加拿大食品检验局（CFIA）会对进口食品进行大量抽样检测，但他们显然无法做到100%彻查，一些食品只有在疑似存在潜在有毒物质时，才会进行有针对性的检测分析。因此，大多数进口至加拿大的食品仅仅只是通过查查报表而草率了之。

Although the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has done a great deal of sampling on imported foodstuffs, it is clear that they cannot do 100% inspections and potential toxins can only be targeted for analysis if their presence is suspected. Therefore, majority of the foodstuffs are entering Canadian based on verification of submitted documents only.

 

 

生产商深谙消费者心理，自然也清楚他们对中国进口食品的抗拒。为此，许多厂家都借助于巧妙的包装增加产品被购买者选中的机会。其中最常见的伎俩就是模仿产自台湾、日本、韩国或香港等知名品牌竞争对手产品的包装风格、颜色和设计。我就曾因为匆忙购物，没有花时间仔细查看标签而深受其害。

Manufacturers are aware of consumer psychologies and their resistance to the purchase of foodstuffs from China. In response, many of them resort to clever packaging to increase their chances of being selected by potential purchasers. A common trick is to copy the style, colour and design of the competitor's product packaging coming from famous brand names originating from Taiwan, Japan, Korea, or Hong Kong. I was a victim myself once while shopping in a hurry and did not take time to read the labels properly.

 

 

另一种伎俩是用非常小而模糊的字体标注“中国制造”。而对于外国公司在中国生产的食品，则会在包装上重点突出外国公司的名称和地址，但对“监制”声明却是含糊带过。

Another way is to make the “Product of China” statement very small and obscure. In the case of foreign companies producing food items in China, they will make the name and address of the foreign company very prominent on the packages with an obscured “supervised by” statement buried amongst the text.

 

 

中国大陆食品生产商常耍的另一个花招是强调产品的“出名地”，以此迷惑潜在消费者。比如在台湾新竹米粉的包装上，“台湾”一词的字体大小通常是其他文字的两倍。此外，许多大陆食品生产商往往会使用“Big 5”繁体汉字,而不是“简化”汉字印制他们的标签。

Another sleight of hand method by Mainland producers is to amplify the “Location” where the product was made famous to confuse the potential customer. In the case of Taiwan Hinschu Maifun, the words “Taiwan” are enlarged to twice the size of other characters. Many Mainland products will also print their labels using “Big 5” Chinese characters instead of the “Simplified” Chinese character sets as well. 

 

 

而与此相反，许多加拿大的品牌海产品会在标签上注明产品是从中国进口或是在中国包装。他们无意迷惑消费者，并会依法在其产品标签上突出标注“中国制造”。

On the flip side of things, many of Canada's brand name seafood labels are products harvested from China or packaged there. They make no attempts to confuse the customers. Their labels will specify “Product of China” prominently as required by law.

 

 

最近，一些消费者自认已经找到避免落入中国进口食品陷阱的策略，并开始在网上分享各自的心得。鉴于所有产品包装上都有包含制造厂商代码、产品代码和校验码的12或13位数字条形码，建议通过查看食品包装上的条形码标签的前三位数字帮助识别产品的原产国。虽然目前并没有政府法规强制规定食品包装必须附上条形码，但大部分零售商和批发商都需要借助条形码记录库存和销售数据。

 

Some consumers thought that they have found a solution to navigate all of these traps of buying foodstuffs from China recently, and they try to share that on the Internet. The barcode on all packages will either be 12 digits or 13 digits consisting of the company prefix, the product identification, and the check digit. The advice is to check the first three digits of the barcode labels on food packages for help in identifying the country of origin of the product. No government regulations mandate that your food package must have a barcode. Most retail establishments and distributors, however, will require one for inventory and sales records purposes.  

 

 

读者可以在网上自行搜索这些代码，但据我所知最为相关的一些国别代码如下：
450-459, 490-499 日本

471 台湾

489 香港

690-699 中国

880 韩国

885 泰国

888  新加坡

958 澳门

 

Readers can research these codes on the Internet but I have collected some of the most relevant ones hear below:

450-459, 490-499 Japan

471 Taiwan

489 Hong Kong

690-699 China

880 South Korea

885 Thailand

888 Singapore

958 Macau

 

 

值得一提的是，（全球统一标准的）前三位GS1前缀码只能确定生产商与之注册的GS1组织成员国，其未必是识别产品实际原产国的可靠指标。

It is important to note that the first three digits of the (Global Standards one) GS1 Prefix only identify the national GS1 Member Organization to which the manufacturer is registered and it is not necessarily a reliable indicator of where the product is actually produced. 

 

 

通过条形码识别产品原产国的方法可靠性有多高？我已经就这种识别方法的准确度做了一些研究，而结果会让你大跌眼镜！（未完待续）。

How reliable is this barcode identification method? I have done some research on the accuracy of this identification method. The results will surprise you! (to be continued next time).