Tariff classification of cocoa butter turned on the ordinary meaning of food, not its use in confectionery manufacture.

Cocoa butter was not classifiable as "all sorts of food not otherwise specified" under Item 21(2) of the First Schedule to the Indian Tariff Act, 1934, because "food" had to be understood in its ordinary commercial sense for tariff purposes, not by borrowing the broader definition from food-adulteration law. Although edible and used in confectionery and chocolate manufacture, it was not ordinarily consumed directly as food and was only a raw material for food products. The contrary classification was therefore erroneous, and the challenge to that classification succeeded.

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Issues: Whether cocoa butter was classifiable as "all sorts of food not otherwise specified" under Item 21(2) of the First Schedule to the Indian Tariff Act, 1934, or as vegetable non-essential oil under Item 15(6).

Analysis: The classification had to be determined by the ordinary and commonly understood meaning of "food" in the context of a taxing statute, not by importing the wider definition of food from the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Cocoa butter, though edible and used in the manufacture of confectionery and chocolate, was not ordinarily consumed directly as food and could not be treated as food merely because it entered into the composition or preparation of food products. The authorities' approach of classifying it as food because of its use in food manufacture was erroneous. On the tariff scheme, Item 21(2) covered products of the food-preparing industries, whereas cocoa butter was at best a raw material and not such a product.

Conclusion: Cocoa butter was not classifiable under Item 21(2) as a food item and the petitioners' challenge to the contrary classification succeeded.

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