05 Animal originated products; not elsewhere specified or included
The broadest level of the Harmonized System. Pick the heading below that fits your goods, then the six-digit code under it — that last one is what you declare.
Section I, Live Animals & Animal Products — live animals, meat, fish, dairy and other products of animal origin.
- 05 Chapter Animal originated products; not elsewhere specified or included
- —— Heading Pick one of the 9 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 5 is a catch-all for animal-derived products that don't fit chapter 1-4: human hair, bristles, animal guts, bladders, bones, horns, hooves, coral and similar raw materials used in manufacturing rather than food. It's a small chapter, mostly industrial and craft inputs rather than consumer goods. Classification tip: Products of endangered or protected species (certain corals, ivory-adjacent materials) can require a CITES permit in addition to the HS code, regardless of how minor the shipment looks on paper.
9 headings in chapter 05
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 05.01 Human hair; unworked, whether or not washed or scoured; waste of human hair 1 code
- 05.02 Pigs', hogs' or boars' bristles and hair; and waste thereof 2 codes
- 05.04 Guts, bladders and stomachs of animals (other than fish); whole and pieces thereof, fresh, chilled, frozen, salted, in brine, dried or smoked 1 code
- 05.05 Skins and other parts of birds with feathers, down; feathers, down and parts thereof; not further worked than cleaned, disinfected, treated for preservation; powder, waste and parts of feathers 2 codes
- 05.06 Bones and horn-cores, unworked, defatted, simply prepared (but not cut to shape), treated with acid or degelatinised; powder and waste of these products 2 codes
- 05.07 Ivory, tortoise-shell, whalebone and whalebone hair, horns, antlers, hooves, nails, claws and beaks unworked or simply prepared, not cut to shape; waste and powder of these products 2 codes
- 05.08 Coral and similar materials, unworked or simply prepared, shells of molluscs, crustaceans or echinoderms and cuttle-bone, not cut to shape powder and waste thereof 1 code
- 05.10 Ambergris, castoreum, civet and musk; cantharides; bile, dried or not glands, other animal products used in preparation of pharmaceutical products, fresh chilled, frozen or otherwise provisionally preserved 1 code
- 05.11 Animal products not elsewhere specified or included; dead animals of chapter 1 or 3, unfit for human consumption 3 codes
Other chapters in Section I
The wording above is the Harmonized System nomenclature as published by the World Customs Organization, HS 2022 edition. It is a classification reference, not a tariff: it carries no duty rates, and it stops at six digits — the importing country adds its own beyond that.
Classification is decided by the General Rules of Interpretation and the section and chapter notes, and it is the importing country’s customs authority that makes it binding.
Shipping goods from chapter 05? A customs hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving — follow the container or the air waybill from departure to delivery.
Track a shipmentChapter 05 FAQ
Chapter 5 is a catch-all for animal-derived products that don't fit chapter 1-4: human hair, bristles, animal guts, bladders, bones, horns, hooves, coral and similar raw materials used in manufacturing rather than food. It's a small chapter, mostly industrial and craft inputs rather than consumer goods. Classification tip: Products of endangered or protected species (certain corals, ivory-adjacent materials) can require a CITES permit in addition to the HS code, regardless of how minor the shipment looks on paper.
Pick the heading below that describes the goods, then the six-digit subheading under it. Six digits is the level the Harmonized System defines and the level customs everywhere recognises; anything beyond that is added by the importing country.
The General Rules of Interpretation, read together with the notes to Section I and to chapter 05. A description that reads right is not enough on its own — the notes routinely pull goods out of the chapter they obviously belong to and put them somewhere else. Where duty or licensing turns on the answer, ask the importing country’s customs authority for a binding ruling.
A wrong or missing code is one of the common reasons customs holds a container, and a hold shows up as a milestone that stops moving. Watch for it in the container tracking app, on the air waybill in the air cargo tracker, or through the tracking API.