21 Miscellaneous edible preparations
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 IV, Foodstuffs, Beverages & Tobacco — prepared food and drink — sugar, cocoa, beverages, spirits, vinegar and tobacco.
- 21 Chapter Miscellaneous edible preparations
- —— Heading Pick one of the 6 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 21 is a catch-all for miscellaneous edible preparations that don't fit neatly elsewhere: sauces, soups, yeast, food supplements, ice cream and flavoured extracts. It's a common landing spot for newer packaged-food products that blend ingredients from multiple other food chapters. Classification tip: Composite food products (a sauce with meat, a supplement with pharmaceutical-grade ingredients) can straddle this chapter and chapter 16 or chapter 30: classify by the ingredient that gives the product its essential character, not by marketing name.
6 headings in chapter 21
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 21.01 Extracts, essences, concentrates of coffee, tea or mate; preparations with a basis of these products or with a basis of coffee, tea or mate; roasted chicory and other roasted coffee substitutes and extracts, essences and concentrates thereof 4 codes
- 21.02 Yeasts (active or inactive); other single-cell micro-organisms, dead (but not including vaccines of heading no. 3002); prepared baking powders 3 codes
- 21.03 Sauces and preparations therefor; mixed condiments and mixed seasonings, mustard flour and meal and prepared mustard 4 codes
- 21.04 Soups and broths and preparations therefor; homogenised composite food preparations 2 codes
- 21.05 Ice cream and other edible ice; whether or not containing cocoa 1 code
- 21.06 Food preparations not elsewhere specified or included 2 codes
Other chapters in Section IV
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 21? 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 21 FAQ
Chapter 21 is a catch-all for miscellaneous edible preparations that don't fit neatly elsewhere: sauces, soups, yeast, food supplements, ice cream and flavoured extracts. It's a common landing spot for newer packaged-food products that blend ingredients from multiple other food chapters. Classification tip: Composite food products (a sauce with meat, a supplement with pharmaceutical-grade ingredients) can straddle this chapter and chapter 16 or chapter 30: classify by the ingredient that gives the product its essential character, not by marketing name.
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 IV and to chapter 21. 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.