Table of Content
1. What do we mean by baby food?
On everyday usage, baby food covers all foods made specifically to feed infants and young children: infant formula, cereal porridge, fruit and vegetable purées, and special dietary foods for babies with particular nutritional needs. For VAT purposes, though, the term isn’t defined uniformly, and that’s one of the main reasons the legal landscape across the EU is so fragmented.
Two classification logics overlap here:
- Food law: Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 distinguishes between infant formula, follow-on formula, processed cereal-based food, other baby food, and food for special medical purposes intended for infants.1 It governs composition and labelling, but says nothing about the tax rate.
- Customs law: For VAT purposes, most member states rely on the EU customs tariff’s Combined Nomenclature (CN), independent of how a product is classified under food law. Baby food typically falls under Chapter 19 (cereal preparations, such as porridge), Chapter 20 (fruit and vegetable preparations), or Chapter 21 (milk-powder and special preparations).
Whether a product qualifies for a reduced rate therefore doesn’t depend on whether it’s a product for babies, but on how the member state in question has worded its reduced-rate provisions. Comparing how member states have translated these two logics into their own legislation reveals four recurring patterns, which structure the overview below.
2. EU overview: a comparison of tax rates
EU member states can be roughly grouped into four categories, depending on what they tie the reduced rate to. The overview below shows how these four patterns play out in practice across member states:
| Group | Principle | Countries |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pure customs-tariff orientation | Baby food doesn't exist as its own category. A reduced rate only applies if a product happens to fall under a reduced customs heading anyway. | Germany, Austria, Greece*, Poland* |
| 2. General food discount, no CN-code link | "Food for human consumption" is taxed at a reduced rate. Baby food falls under this implicitly, without any CN code being checked. | Netherlands, Luxembourg, Sweden, France, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Malta |
| 2b. General food discount, tied to CN codes | The same discount, but explicitly tied to specific CN codes. | Czechia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania* |
| 3. Dedicated baby-food category | Baby food is treated as its own, named reduced-rate category: either generally, by regulation, or down to the exact product and CN code. |
General: Croatia, Portugal. Product-specific: Latvia, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece*, Poland*, Romania* |
| 4. No reduction | Baby food is taxed at the full rate like any other product. | Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania |
It’s striking that Germany and Austria, the most obvious target markets for many retailers, fall into the strictest group. Cyprus, meanwhile, can’t be permanently assigned to any of the four groups. Until the end of 2026 it taxes baby milk at its own zero rate, similar to Group 3, and after that falls back to the general reduced food rate under Group 2. That shows just how much this classification can shift even within a single country over time.
Greece, Poland and Romania (each marked with *) can’t be cleanly assigned to just one group either. Greece and Poland combine pure customs-tariff orientation with an additional, explicit mention of baby food within the relevant customs chapter. Romania combines a general, CN-code-tied food discount with a separately named reduction specifically for infant and follow-on formula. As with Cyprus, the takeaway is the same: several rules can apply side by side within a single country.
2.1 Tax rates on baby food: an overview of all EU Member States
Here’s how these rates translate into actual numbers across all 27 member states:
| Country | Standard rate | Reduced rate | Group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 20% | 10% | Group 1 |
| Belgium | 21% | 6% | Group 2 |
| Bulgaria | 20% | 9% | Group 3 |
| Croatia | 25% | 5% | Group 3 |
| Cyprus | 19% | 0% (until 31 Dec 2026) / 5% (after) | Special case |
| Czechia | 21% | 12% | Group 2b |
| Denmark | 25% | – | Group 4 |
| Estonia | 24% | – | Group 4 |
| Finland | 25.5% | 13.5% | Group 2 |
| France | 20% | 5.5% | Group 2 |
| Germany | 19% | 7% | Group 1 |
| Greece | 24% | 13% | Group 1 / Group 3 |
| Hungary | 27% | 5% | Group 3 |
| Ireland | 23% | 0% | Group 2 |
| Italy | 22% | 10% | Group 3 |
| Latvia | 21% | 12% | Group 3 |
| Lithuania | 21% | – | Group 4 |
| Luxembourg | 17% | 3% | Group 2 |
| Malta | 18% | 0% | Group 2 |
| Netherlands | 21% | 9% | Group 2 |
| Poland | 23% | 5% / 8% | Group 1 / Group 3 |
| Portugal | 23% | 6% | Group 3 |
| Romania | 21% | 11% | Group 2b / Group 3 |
| Slovakia | 23% | 5% / 19% | Group 2b |
| Slovenia | 22% | 9.5% | Group 2b |
| Spain | 21% | 10% | Group 2 |
| Sweden | 25% | 6% (until 31 Dec 2027) / 12% (from 1 Jan 2028) | Group 2 |
| United Kingdom (non-EU, reference) | 20% | 0% | Not an EU member |
How this customs-tariff orientation plays out in practice is best seen in a direct comparison between Germany and Austria: the same principle, but with a decisive difference in outcome.
3. VAT on baby food in Germany
As with dietary supplements (link here), the same applies to baby food: there’s no dedicated list for baby products, just Annex 2 of the German VAT Act (Umsatzsteuergesetz), which sets out which goods are taxed at 7% instead of 19%. For a product, that means: depending on what it’s mainly made of, it falls into one of four chapters, and not all of them are equally, fully covered by the discount.
Milk-based products such as infant formula or milk powder fall under Chapter 4 and are reduced-rated, except for the practically negligible cases of inedible eggs or egg yolk. Cereal-based porridge falls under Chapter 19, which is fully reduced-rated. For fruit and vegetable preparations, Chapter 20, the reduced rate only applies to headings 2001 to 2008, i.e. classic purées, while fruit and vegetable juices under heading 2009 are explicitly excluded. Anything that doesn’t fit into these three categories, such as special or milk-powder-based preparations, falls under Chapter 21, which in Germany is also fully reduced-rated.
| Product type | Typical classification | VAT rate |
|---|---|---|
| Infant formula | Chapter 4 | 7% |
| Cereal porridge | Chapter 19 | 7% |
| Fruit/vegetable purée | Chapter 20 (headings 2001–2008) | 7% |
| Fruit juice | Chapter 20 (heading 2009) | 19% |
| Special foods | Chapter 21 | 7% |
4. VAT on baby food in Austria
Austria belongs to the same group, but arrives at a narrower result at one decisive point. For dairy products, Austria is actually more generous than Germany: Chapter 4 is fully reduced-rated there, while Germany only covers part of it. For cereal-based and fruit/vegetable preparations, Chapters 19 and 20, the two countries align. The real difference lies in the catch-all Chapter 21: while Germany reduces the entire heading, Austria only reduces subheading 2101 30 and headings 2102 to 2106, explicitly excluding syrups for dispensing systems.
5. Germany vs. Austria: What are the differences?
| Chapter | Germany | Austria |
|---|---|---|
| 4 – Milk, eggs, honey | Partially reduced (milk/dairy products, eggs/egg yolk except inedible, honey) | Fully reduced |
| 19 – Cereal preparations | Fully reduced | Fully reduced |
| 20, headings 2001–2008 – Fruit/vegetable preparations | Reduced (juices under heading 2009 excluded) | Reduced (juices under heading 2009 excluded) |
| 21 – incl. milk-powder/special preparations | Fully reduced | Only subheading 2101 30 and headings 2102–2106 (certain syrups excluded) |
For retailers, this is more than a footnote. A product that’s fully covered by the reduced-rate Chapter 21 in Germany can be taxed at the full rate in Austria, as soon as it falls outside the covered subheadings. The same specialty product can therefore be taxed differently depending on the country it’s sold in. This example isn’t an isolated case, it’s typical of a fundamental problem: knowing the rate alone isn’t enough if the classification behind it is wrong.
6. Classifying baby food correctly for tax purposes
A wrong classification rarely stays without consequences. If it later turns out that a product should have been taxed at the full rate instead of the reduced one, the tax authority will claim the difference retroactively for the entire period concerned. That shortfall usually can’t be passed on to customers who have already been invoiced, so it comes straight out of the seller’s own margin. On top of that, a wrong classification can also carry legal consequences. Time-limited special rules, such as in Cyprus, where the zero rate on baby milk expires on 31 December 2026, or in Sweden, where the rate rises from 6% to 12% on 1 January 2028, add to the risk: anyone who doesn’t reclassify their range in time will automatically be showing the wrong rate from that date onward.
7. Conclusion: The correct tax rate depends on the product and the destination country
Germany and Austria illustrate on a small scale what applies to the EU as a whole: tax rates alone reveal little if the underlying classification is incorrect. For the remaining 25 Member States, as well as the United Kingdom as a non-EU reference, the same logic applies in different combinations, ranging from a purely customs tariff-based approach to a separate category for baby food, or no reduction at all.
Anyone who misclassifies their range carries this risk anew with every recipe and every destination country. That’s exactly where VAT Rules comes in: the tool automatically checks every product against the customs nomenclature and the applicable national reduced-rate rule, based on its actual composition, separately for each destination country. If a recipe changes, or a time-limited special rule such as those in Cyprus or Sweden takes effect, the classification is automatically reassessed instead of having to be updated manually. That way, the correct tax rate for every product and every EU member state can be determined reliably, without a recipe change or a change in the law leading unnoticed to the wrong rate being shown.
As of August 2026. This article is for general information purposes only and does not replace individual legal or tax advice.
