# EAN GTIN Validator + EU Recall Check (Safety Gate / RAPEX) (`northwestsouth/ean-gtin-lookup-eu-recall-check`) Actor

Is this product recalled in the EU? Check EAN/GTIN barcodes against 46,506 official EU Safety Gate (RAPEX) alerts since 2005, plus checksum validation and GS1 origin. Batch up to 10,000 codes, pay per result.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/northwestsouth/ean-gtin-lookup-eu-recall-check.md
- **Developed by:** [NorthWestSouth Data](https://apify.com/northwestsouth) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 1 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $5.00 / 1,000 barcode checkeds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## EAN GTIN Validator + EU Recall Check

Check a list of **EAN/GTIN barcodes** against **46,506 official EU Safety Gate (RAPEX) recall alerts** — and validate every code while you're at it.

This is the only barcode tool that answers *"is this product recalled in the EU?"*. US recall databases don't carry barcodes; EU Safety Gate does, and this actor makes that data queryable by GTIN in one call.

### Coverage — read this before you run it

**Recall check: 100% of codes are checked** against the complete EU Safety Gate corpus (2005 to yesterday, synced daily including official corrections).

**Product identity (name, brand, image) is best-effort and comes from the Open Food/Products/Beauty Facts community databases.** Measured hit rate on a sample of real barcodes: **~40% for grocery, drinks and packaged consumer goods; near 0% for toys, electronics, textiles, lighting and cosmetics**, which those databases barely cover. If you need guaranteed product master data, this is not that tool — use it for validation and the recall verdict, and treat any product data you get as a bonus.

### What you get per barcode

| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| `gtin_valid` | Checksum validation (EAN-8, UPC-A, EAN-13, GTIN-14) |
| `format` | Detected barcode format |
| `gs1_prefix_origin` | Region where the code was registered (GS1 prefix) |
| `product` | Name, brand, categories, quantity, image URL (from Open Food/Products/Beauty Facts, attributed) |
| `recall` | **EU Safety Gate verdict**: `recalled` / `possible_match` / `clear`, with case numbers, risk type and official alert links |

### Who uses this

- **Merchants & marketplace sellers** — screen a supplier's catalogue before ordering, or sweep your existing catalogue against EU recalls
- **AI agents & automations** — the actor is MCP-exposed and pay-per-event; agents can call it autonomously
- **Product-data teams** — bulk-validate and enrich GTIN lists (up to 10,000 per run)

### Input

```json
{
  "barcodes": ["4032722964700", "4006381333931"],
  "includeProductData": true,
  "recallCheck": true
}
```

### Example output

```json
{
  "barcode": "4032722964700",
  "gtin_valid": true,
  "format": "EAN-13",
  "gs1_prefix_origin": "Germany",
  "product": { "name": "Feel Better Buddy", "brand": "Trendhaus", "image_url": "…" },
  "recall": {
    "checked": true,
    "status": "recalled",
    "match_count": 1,
    "alerts": [{
      "caseNumber": "SR/02108/26",
      "product": "Sand-filled figurine toy",
      "risk": "Health risk / other",
      "level": "Serious risk",
      "reference": "https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts/screen/webReport/alertDetail/10099441"
    }]
  }
}
```

### Data sources & licences

- Recall data: Alerts from the Rapid Alert System for dangerous non-food products, published free of charge on the Safety Gate website (https://ec.europa.eu/safety-gate-alerts) © European Union, 2005–2026. Reused under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU. Source fields unaltered; verdicts and matching are our own and are marked as such.
- Product identity: Open Food Facts / Open Products Facts / Open Beauty Facts, © contributors, ODbL.
- A `clear` verdict means no matching alert was found — it is not a safety certification.

### Pricing

Pay per processed barcode. No subscription, no minimum.

# Actor input Schema

## `barcodes` (type: `array`):

List of EAN-8, EAN-13, UPC-12 or GTIN-14 barcodes to look up (max 10,000 per run).

## `includeProductData` (type: `boolean`):

Looks up name, brand and image in the Open Food/Products/Beauty Facts databases. Hit rate is roughly 40% for groceries and packaged goods and near zero for toys, electronics, textiles and cosmetics — those categories are barely covered there.

## `recallCheck` (type: `boolean`):

Check each code against official EU Safety Gate (RAPEX) alerts since 2005 — the field no other lookup provides.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "barcodes": [
    "4032722964700",
    "4006381333931"
  ],
  "includeProductData": true,
  "recallCheck": true
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "barcodes": [
        "4032722964700",
        "4006381333931"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("northwestsouth/ean-gtin-lookup-eu-recall-check").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "barcodes": [
        "4032722964700",
        "4006381333931",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("northwestsouth/ean-gtin-lookup-eu-recall-check").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "barcodes": [
    "4032722964700",
    "4006381333931"
  ]
}' |
apify call northwestsouth/ean-gtin-lookup-eu-recall-check --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=northwestsouth/ean-gtin-lookup-eu-recall-check",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/v4ta7P2uabYiMpQu5/builds/GBHXvydS60Svp6Cug/openapi.json