Marketing food

The way food items are marketed affects their GST status. Marketing includes:

• how goods are promoted or advertised
• the name, price, labelling, instructions, packaging and placement of the goods in the store.

The following products are GST-free:

• fats and oils marketed for culinary purposes
• malt extract marketed mainly for drinking
• preparations that are marketed mainly as tea, coffee, or malted beverages
• preparations marketed mainly as substitutes for tea, coffee or malted beverages
• dry preparations marketed to flavour milk
• beverages and ingredients for beverages marketed mainly as food for infants or invalids.

The following products are taxable:

• food marketed as a prepared meal, excluding soup
• food marketed as confectionery
• food marketed exclusively as ingredients for confectionery
• flavoured ice-blocks, whether frozen or not.