Barcodes for Food and Beverages

The majority of food and drink products sold around the world have barcodes on their labels. Retailers require barcodes on products to easily keep track of their stock and facilitate the sales process. We have been selling barcodes to customers in more than 100 countries for many years, and many of our clients are using our barcodes on their food or drink products. Take a look at some of our customers:

Whole Food Chef – suppliers of nuts, seeds, legumes, flour
COAN Food – healthy snacks to fuel your day
Muckle Brewing produce a wide range of ales in Northumberland
Distillers of Surrey (Sherlock & Sons Gin)
Pentire Drinks – botanical non-alcoholic spirits

 

Buy your barcodes from the table below – when you purchase “Barcode Packages” from below, you will receive EAN-13 barcodes that are suitable for use on all food and beverage products in the UK and worldwide.

For more information, please see: Your Guide to Food Product Barcodes.

FAQs about Barcodes for Food and Beverages:

 

What type of barcode do I need ?

In the UK (and most other parts of the world) food and beverage products usually have a 13-digit “EAN-13” barcode on them. You can purchase this type of barcode above and receive it by email instantly.

The EAN-13 barcodes we sell are globally unique barcodes that comply with the standardised retail barcoding system used worldwide. Our barcodes are compliant with all global retail barcoding software and barcode scanners.

How many barcodes do I need for my products?

Generally speaking, you need a unique barcode number for each different retail product (this includes different product variations – e.g. different craft beer flavours or sizes). If your product is for sale both individually (e.g. individual bottles) and in a multi-unit set (e.g. a 6-pack of beers), you’ll need one barcode for the bottle and a different barcode for the 6-pack.

It’s imperative to get a different barcode for each product when the price is different. If the price is the same (across all the product variations), then you might get away with using the same barcode number on all the product variations. This depends on which retail stores you are selling your products in – the larger retail stores, in particular, might require a different barcode for each product variation (especially if they do stocktaking automatically, instead of manually).

What type of barcode do I need for the outer delivery cartons?

You may need to put an ITF-14 barcode (a 14-digit Shipping Code) onto the delivery boxes that contain your products  – please discuss this with your retailers to find out if they require this. ITF-14 barcodes are 14 digits long and are based on the 13-digit EAN barcode on the product labels. They are scanned when each delivery carton enters the warehouse/storage area so that your retailers know how many units of your product are in each box. This helps them keep track of the remaining stock in their warehouse and know when they’re running low on a particular product and need to order more. Usually, you’ll need one ITF-14 barcode for each EAN-13 barcode that you have. You can purchase an ITF-14 barcode here if you need one.

Do we need to give you any product information?

No, you don’t. All you need to do is buy the barcodes you need below on our website and pay by credit card. You will receive your barcodes automatically by email as soon as we receive your payment. The barcodes will be a globally unique sequence of 13 digits encoded into a barcode image (the vertical black bars and white spaces). No product information will be encoded into the barcodes. Your barcodes and products will only be linked together once you give them to your retailers, and they enter the information into their inventory system. After that, when the barcode is scanned, the product/price information will appear on the retailer’s checkout screen.

How do we use our barcodes?

For information on how to use your barcodes, please see this page.

Do we need to register the barcodes in a  database? 

No, you don’t. You can allocate the barcodes to your products, get them printed onto the labels, and start using the barcodes immediately. There is no compulsory (or comprehensive) barcode database for food or beverage products in the UK or worldwide.

There are several general barcode databases online (where all types of retail products – food, beverages, clothes etc. – can be listed), but none of these databases is complete. One of the best ones is the International Barcodes Database. If you purchase “EAN-13 Barcode Packages” (above), you’ll be able to register your barcodes for free on that database. Registration is an optional service. It is not compulsory. For more information about barcode registrations, click here.