Stiftung Warentest AGAINST “reduced” barcodes

Falsely perceived “neutrality” and the support of superstition and unscientific conspiracy theories: crossed out QR codes on food packaging.

We already wrote about this phenomenon in the summer of 2016 and referred to the behavior of the “Neumarkter Lammsbräu” brewery, which uses a “reduced barcode” on its products for “reasons of neutrality”, meaning that the barcode contains a horizontal bar.

Stiftung Warentest explains what this nonsense means in a status report on Facebook, in which the foundation (rightly) explodes:

Esoteric conspiracy theories surrounding barcodes are still rampant and some well-known companies still support these superstitions.

The rumor: The black, vertical lines of the barcodes are said to act like an antenna. This charges the product with negative energy and is harmful to your health. The radiation is particularly bad at the checkout: If the product is pulled over the laser scanner, the negative energy is supposedly intensified. As if this weren’t absurd enough, a “solution” is also presented. A simple horizontal line through the barcode is intended to “reduce” the interference.

It is scientifically incomprehensible how simple printer ink - which barcodes are made of - can have such an effect. Accordingly, representatives of the thesis do not provide a rational explanation .

Nevertheless, the superstition finds many supporters. So many that well-known companies such as Rabenhorst, Löwenbräu or Allos already equip their barcodes with a dash at the factory, thereby confirming and reinforcing consumers' irrational fears.

This is justified with “customer service” and “neutrality”. Unfortunately, the providers usually do not explain to what extent supporting superstition and unscientific conspiracy theories is intended to demonstrate neutrality. In the end, barcodes remain what they always were: black ink. On paper.

Thanks to Kumi for the cartoon. You can find more from him in his blog: http://grafikpolizei.wordpress.com/

Labelknowledge.de

The website “ Tagenwissen.de ” also comes to a very clear conclusion in its very informative article about barcode interference: It can be assumed that these theories are based on the one hand on a fascination with the mystical (Satanism) and on the other hand on technical incomprehension and hostility to technology . The radiation theory can only be maintained by completely ignoring all technical facts.

Any fear of the barcode is completely unfounded. The actual data protection problem of RFID transponders is dragged into the esoteric corner and made absurd through ignorance.

We would also like to say a big thank you to grafikpolizei.wordpress.com for the great picture!