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Natural Products is Britain’s leading trade magazine for the natural and organic products industry. Published since 1993 Natural Products online provides you with all the latest industry, company and product news along with regular features such as Health File and Food Focus.
SHOW ARCHIVE |
09 February 2010 |
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Wheatgrass juice is ‘food’, VAT tribunal concludes - February 25, 2008
Wheatgrass juice business Tonic Attack last week won a three-year battle to have its products classified as a ‘food’ and so therefore exempt from VAT, reports The Grocer.
Brand owner and organic farmer, Oliver Dowding, decided to take his case to a VAT tribunal after HM Revenue & Customs reversed its initial assessment that Tonic Attack was a food product, deciding to classify it as a drink. The definition of a drink, for VAT purposes, is a product that “is drunk to quench thirst, hydrate the consumer and give pleasure”. Dowding argued that wheatgrass juice does not meet this description. He also said that if Tonic Attack were subject to VAT it would simply end up being to expensive to be viable. It seems, however, that what eventually swayed the tribunal’s decision was evidence presented by Professor Sean Strain, who said that wheatgrass juice contained sufficient levels of protein to be considered more as a food than a drink.
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