NCS/ARS/CL/10216

You have requested for a Tariff Classification Ruling of Caramel Color Powder 641 imported in 680 polybags of 25kg with a total net weight of 17,000 kg. 

PRODUCT ANALYSIS

According to the MSDS and supporting documents you have provided, Caramel Color Powder 641 is a brown powder water-soluble food-grade coloring agent with a burnt sugar characteristic odour produced by the controlled heating of carbohydrates alone or in the presence of food-grade acids, alkalis, or salts. It is primarily used to impart a brown colour to food and beverage products such as soft drinks, sauces, baked goods, and syrups.

The product is composed of the following physical and chemical properties: 

• Appearance: Brown powder
• Odor: Burnt sugar
• pH: < 9
• Solubility: Soluble in water, insoluble in oil
• Boiling/Flash Point, Flammability: Not applicable/established

TARIFF ANALYSIS

Explanatory Note (D) to Heading 1702, ‘Caramel is a brown non‑crystallisable substance with an aromatic odour. It may be in the form either of a more or less syrupy liquid or of a solid, usually a powder. It is obtained by more or less prolonged pyrogenation, at a temperature of 120 ‑ 180 °C, from sugars (usually glucose or sucrose) or from molasses. Depending on the manufacturing process, a whole series of products is obtained ranging from caramelized sugars (or molasses) proper with a sugar content, calculated on the dry product, which is usually high (of the order of 90 %), to “coloring” caramels, with a very low sugar content.’

Caramel color is made by heating sugars; hence, it’s a thermally altered sugar product, not a synthetic dye or pigment of chapter 32. The main usage is in food and beverage production, not in paint, ink, plastic, or industrial coatings, hence it is appropriately classified under heading 1702 - “Other sugars, …caramel.”

TARIFF CLASSIFICATION

The product, Caramel Color Powder 641 is therefore effectively classified under HS Code 1702.90.00.00 - "Other, including invert sugar and other sugar containing dry state 50 % of fructose." at 5% rate of duty and 0% VAT in the ECOWAS CET 2022 - 2027.

LEGAL JUSTIFICATION
GIR 1 and 6