GST on Packaged Food & Snacks: The HSN Codes Sellers Get Wrong

Packaged food and snack HSN codes look straightforward on the surface — most sit at the standard 5% rate for staple and lightly processed goods. The catch is that "packaged food" isn't one rate bracket; it's dozens of narrow headings, several with broader scope than sellers expect, some with named exclusions, and at least one with a rate that's nowhere near 5%.

Eight packaged food & snack HSN codes worth a second look

Pasta and vermicelli — broader than it sounds (HSN 1902) — Covers seviyan and vermicelli, but also spaghetti, macaroni, noodles, lasagne, gnocchi, ravioli, cannelloni, and couscous — cooked, stuffed, or otherwise prepared. Most packaged pasta products fall here regardless of shape or filling. Full breakdown →

Puffed and parched rice, plus cereal flakes (HSN 1904) — Covers muri, chira, khoi, and murki, but also corn flakes, bulgar wheat, other cereal-flake preparations, and Fortified Rice Kernel under the same code. Full breakdown →

Bakery products — wider scope than "cakes and biscuits" (HSN 1905) — Covers pastry, cakes and biscuits, but also communion wafers, sealing wafers, rice paper, and extruded/expanded savoury or salted snack products. If you sell extruded snack pellets, they likely share this code with traditional bakery goods. Full breakdown →

Prepared fruit and nuts — only the processed versions (HSN 2008) — Covers roasted/salted nuts and fruit squashes, but specifically the "otherwise prepared or preserved" versions. Fresh or simply dried fruit and nuts belong under different, earlier headings with different rates. Full breakdown →

Soups and a second, unrelated category (HSN 2104) — Covers soup and broth preparations, and separately, homogenised composite food preparations (finely blended dietetic/infant-feeding foods) — two distinct product families sharing one code. Full breakdown →

Jaggery's actual heading, not standalone 1702 (HSN 1701/1702) — Jaggery of all types (gur, palmyra jaggery, khandsari sugar, rab) is filed under a combined "1701 or 1702" entry — not standalone HSN 1702, which is a separate listing for other sugars, syrups, and artificial honey. Full breakdown →

Diabetic foods — its own sub-heading (HSN 21069091) — A named sub-category carved out from the broader "food preparations not elsewhere specified" heading (HSN 2106), at the same 5% rate but as its own distinct line item. Use this specific sub-heading rather than the parent 2106 code. Full breakdown →

Pan masala — a very different rate under the same chapter (HSN 21069020) — Carved out of the general 2106 food-preparation heading (5%) and taxed separately at 28%, the highest standard GST slab, with Compensation Cess commonly applying on top. Don't file pan masala under the general food-preparation code by mistake. Full breakdown →

The pattern across packaged food classification

Three things repeat across this category: headings are often broader than their common name suggests (bakery goods pulling in extruded snacks, puffed rice pulling in corn flakes), a processing condition often decides eligibility (prepared/preserved vs. fresh, pre-packaged vs. loose), and a small number of specific products are deliberately carved out to a much higher rate (pan masala) precisely so they aren't taxed like ordinary packaged food.

If you sell across several packaged food SKUs, it's worth checking each one against its full entry text on our HSN code finder rather than assuming a uniform rate for "packaged food" as a category — as this list shows, that assumption breaks down more often than expected.

Why food classification deserves extra care

Food HSN codes carry a specific compliance risk that other categories don't: the same broad chapter can span an exempt or 5% staple item and a 28%-plus "sin good" carve-out like pan masala, sitting only a few digits apart. Sellers who diversify a packaged food catalog quickly — adding snack SKUs, seasonal items, or a new sub-brand — are the most likely to accidentally carry over a rate from an adjacent, similar-looking product rather than checking the new SKU's specific entry.

It's also worth revisiting food classifications periodically rather than treating them as permanent. Packaged food and agricultural product rate schedules see more frequent notification updates than many other categories, so a classification that was correct at launch is worth re-checking against the current notification if it's been a while since you last verified it.

For the rest of your GST filing calendar, see our GST due dates tracker and marketplace profit calculator, or the full tools & software hub. For the underlying notification text on any entry, the CBIC tax information portal is the authoritative source, and our broader GST hub covers compliance beyond HSN classification.