23 Food industries, residues and wastes thereof; prepared animal fodder
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.
- 23 Chapter Food industries, residues and wastes thereof; prepared animal fodder
- —— Heading Pick one of the 9 headings below
- —— Subheading Six digits, the level every country shares
Chapter 23 covers residues and waste from food industries and prepared animal fodder: oilcake, bran, brewing and distilling dregs, and compound animal feed. It's the byproduct chapter that sits downstream of chapters 10-22. Classification tip: Animal feed containing meat or bone meal often triggers separate biosecurity/BSE-related import controls beyond the standard customs code, especially for shipments to markets with strict feed-safety rules.
9 headings in chapter 23
Four-digit groups. Pick the one that fits, then the six-digit code inside it.
- 23.01 Flours, meal and pellets, of meat or meat offal, of fish or of crustaceans, molluscs or other aquatic invertebrates, unfit for human consumption; greaves 2 codes
- 23.02 Bran, sharps and other residues; whether or not in the form of pellets derived from the sifting, milling or other working of cereals or of leguminous plants 4 codes
- 23.03 Residues of starch manufacture, similar residues; beet-pulp, bagasse and other waste of sugar manufacture, brewing or distilling dregs and waste, whether or not in the form of pellets 3 codes
- 23.04 Oil-cake and other solid residues; whether or not ground or in the form of pellets, resulting from the extraction of soya-bean oil 1 code
- 23.05 Oil-cake and other solid residues; whether or not ground or in the form of pellets, resulting from the extraction of ground-nut oil 1 code
- 23.06 Oil-cake and other solid residues; whether or not ground or in the form of pellets, resulting from the extraction of vegetable or microbial fats or oils, other than those of heading no. 2304 or 2305 8 codes
- 23.07 Wine lees; argol 1 code
- 23.08 Vegetable materials and vegetable waste, vegetable residues and bi-products; whether or not in the form of pellets, of a kind used in animal feeding, not elsewhere specified or included 1 code
- 23.09 Preparations of a kind used in animal feeding 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 23? 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 23 FAQ
Chapter 23 covers residues and waste from food industries and prepared animal fodder: oilcake, bran, brewing and distilling dregs, and compound animal feed. It's the byproduct chapter that sits downstream of chapters 10-22. Classification tip: Animal feed containing meat or bone meal often triggers separate biosecurity/BSE-related import controls beyond the standard customs code, especially for shipments to markets with strict feed-safety rules.
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 23. 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.