Judge: health bars are cakes as they pass the cricket tea test

NUTRITIONAL bars are cakes, a judge has ruled in a tax tribunal hearing that exempts them from VAT.

Judge Amanda Brown ruled in favour of manufacturer Pulsin after sampling the bars made of dates, cashews and brown rice bran alongside Mr Kipling’s French Fancies, Victoria sponge cake and Tunnock’s Tea Cakes.

The Raw Choc Brownies come in variations called Maca Bliss, Almond and Raisin, Superberry and Peanut Choc Chip and are free of refined sugar.

Judge Brown dismissed Pulsin’s claims that they were “not sweet enough” to be considered confectionery but said this did not exclude them from being cakes.

The ingredients used in making the brownies, the manufacturing method, their taste and texture were all “consistent with those of a cake”, she said.

The dispute began in 2016 when Pulsin said that it had wrongly been paying VAT for four years. But tax authorities insisted that the products were not cakes but confectionery.

Judge Brown said: “Eating habits change. Fewer people sit down to meals and many eat on the go with the consequence that an individually portioned cake may be eaten as a snack.

“With the rise in obesity, the public look for cakes different in nature to those of the Seventies.”

She added: “Put alongside a slice of Victoria sponge or a French Fancy, the products may look out of place.

“However, for instance, at a cricket or sporting tea where it is likely that individually wrapped cakes will be served on a plate, the products would absolutely not stand out as unusual.”

On balance, Judge Brown ruled that the brownies “do show enough characteristics of cakes” to qualify for the zero VAT rating.