Yes. Crisps are one of the few foods Parliament singled out for standard-rating: food is zero-rated as a general rule, but excepted item 5 of Schedule 8 pulls potato crisps and similar products back to 20%. The interesting part is where the boundary falls — which is why Pringles lost in the Court of Appeal and why poppadoms lost in 2025.
The general rule and the exception
Food for human consumption is zero-rated under section 30 and Schedule 8, Group 1 of VATA 1994. That general zero rate is then cut back by a list of excepted items, and snacks sit in item 5. The wording matters, so here it is in full:
"Any of the following when packaged for human consumption without further preparation, namely, potato crisps, potato sticks, potato puffs, and similar products made from the potato, or from potato flour, or from potato starch, and savoury food products obtained by the swelling of cereals or cereal products; and salted or roasted nuts other than nuts in shell."
Three limbs, each doing separate work. Products made from potato, potato flour or potato starch. Savoury products obtained by swelling cereals. And salted or roasted nuts, unless still in the shell. And an opening condition that governs all of it: packaged for human consumption without further preparation.
Pringles
The leading case is Revenue & Customs v Procter & Gamble UK [2009] EWCA Civ 407, decided on 20 May 2009. The tribunal said standard-rated, the High Court reversed it, and the Court of Appeal restored the tribunal. Regular Pringles are standard-rated.
The reasoning is worth knowing because it disposes of the argument people still make. Jacob LJ: "The potato flour content is over 40 per cent; it is the largest single ingredient by about 9 percentage points… one cannot say that it is not made from potato flour, and the proportion of potato flour is significant being over 40 per cent." The court rejected any requirement that a product be wholly potato, or that it possess some undefined quality of "potatoness", and applied the ordinary meaning of everyday English words. Mummery LJ's analogy: a jelly with raspberries in it is still made from jelly.
The instructive footnote is that Pringles Dippers were held zero-rated — not because of what they are made from, but because they were not packaged for consumption without further preparation. The opening condition of item 5 did the work.
Poppadoms, 2025
The more recent decision is Walkers Snack Foods Limited v HMRC [2025] UKUT 155 (TCC), 22 May 2025. Sensations Poppadoms — made from potato granules, potato starch, gram flour, rice flour and seasonings — were held standard-rated as products similar to potato crisps and made from potato and potato starch. Walkers' appeal was dismissed and the First-tier Tribunal upheld.
The tribunal rejected arguments based on the product's name, its distinctive flavours, its gram flour content and the claim that it was conceptually different from a crisp. Name and marketing do not decide liability; composition and format do.
One caution for anyone checking this against HMRC's own material. The liability table in HMRC's VFOOD manual was last updated in July 2024 and still lists poppadoms as zero-rated, with no reference to the 2025 decision. Do not rely on it for that product. The defensible position now is that traditional poppadoms sold as such have been treated as zero-rated, but a poppadom-style snack in crisp format made from potato can fall squarely within item 5.
What is zero-rated, and why
The second limb requires swelling, and that single word decides a lot. Savoury snacks made from cereal flour that are expanded or aerated during manufacture are standard-rated. Products made from cereal that do not involve swelling are not caught — which is why flat savoury snacks such as tortilla chips are zero-rated, while savoury popcorn is standard-rated.
From HMRC's manual, the resulting split:
- Standard-rated — all potato crisps, Chiplets, Monster Munch, Wotsits, Onion Rings, savoury rice cakes, and Pringles in the ordinary variety;
- Zero-rated — Skips, tortilla chips, rice crackers, pork scratchings, croutons, Cheeselets, Twiglets, savoury toasts and bagel chips, Doritos, Wheat Crunchies, Harvest Rings, plain rice cakes and Pringles Dippers.
Two further distinctions that follow the same logic. Savoury biscuits are never within item 5 and are zero-rated. And prawn crackers made from cereals are standard-rated while prawn crackers made from tapioca are zero-rated — same product to a consumer, different ingredient, different answer. Vegetable crisps made from sliced and dried or roasted vegetables other than potatoes are zero-rated.
The Jaffa Cake comparison
The neighbouring battleground is confectionery. Item 2 excepts confectionery but not cakes or biscuits, other than biscuits wholly or partly covered in chocolate. So a cake is zero-rated even when covered in chocolate; a biscuit covered in chocolate is standard-rated.
In United Biscuits (UK) Ltd (LON/91/0160), Customs had accepted since the start of VAT that Jaffa Cakes were zero-rated, then reversed that view and ruled them chocolate-covered biscuits. United Biscuits appealed and won. As HMRC summarises the decision, the tribunal weighed the ingredients — an egg, flour and sugar mixture aerated on cooking, the same as a traditional sponge — a thin batter rather than a biscuit dough, sponge texture, the fact that the product goes hard when stale like a cake rather than soft like a biscuit, and the substantial sponge component, against the size, packaging and shelf position, which pointed to biscuits. On balance: cake.
The principle transfers. These cases are decided on an overall assessment of what the thing actually is, not on a single factor and not on what it is called.
What manufacturers and retailers should take from it
If you are launching a savoury snack, the liability question needs answering at the formulation stage, because a change in composition or format changes the answer and a 20% rate difference is usually larger than the margin. Three questions do most of the work: is there potato, potato flour or potato starch in it; is any cereal element swollen or flat; and is it packaged ready to eat or does the consumer have to do something to it.
And if you are relying on a historic ruling or on HMRC's published table for an existing product, check the date on it. Our guide to what makes a supply taxable covers the wider liability framework, and VAT error correction the route if a product has been rated wrongly.
Acumon advises food and drink businesses on VAT liability through VAT planning and VAT compliance work, with VAT investigation support where HMRC has challenged a rating. If you sell a snack whose liability nobody has tested since it launched, that is a review worth doing before HMRC does it.