Importing confectionery into Brazil: chocolate and biscuits

The short answer

Chocolate, sugar confectionery, and biscuits all run through ANVISA's lightest food track, Comunicação, filed with a local sanitary authority rather than ANVISA itself. The tax stack is where the categories actually diverge: chocolate and sugar confectionery pay 18% import duty and 3.25% IPI, biscuits pay 16.2% duty and no IPI, and plain crackers pay 0% duty under a specific tariff exception. Federally none of these carries the 0.6 percentage-point COFINS-Importação surcharge chapter 84 goods do.

The ANVISA track

Comunicação de Início de Fabricação ou Importação, under IN 281/2024 Anexo III, covers chocolate and cocoa products (chocolate, white chocolate, cocoa powder, soluble cocoa, cocoa butter, cocoa mass), candy and chewing gum (bala, bombom, goma de mascar, melaço, melado, rapadura), and bakery items including biscuits, whole grain and processed cereals, brans, flours and pasta, with biscuits specifically at Anexo III item 4. The category wording is reached through a municipal sanitary authority's own citation of IN 281/2024 rather than the federal gazette text directly, though the chocolate and biscuit placement was reconfirmed in the 23 September 2026 reconciliation behind this page. RDC 27/2010, the previous governing act, was revoked from 1 September 2024 (RDC 843/2024 articles 40-41).

Comunicação works the same way regardless of which product sits on it: the form is filed with a state, municipal or district sanitary authority, using the model in Anexo XI of IN 281/2024, per ANVISA's own "Dispensa de registro" guidance. Sale can start as soon as the filing is submitted, there is no formal review period, the filing does not expire, and the authority keeps the right to inspect the product after the fact rather than before.

Federal taxes by code

Verified against MDIC's Anexos file and TIPI ADE RFB 1/2026, 23 September 2026.

NCM	Product	II applied	IPI	PIS+COFINS
1806.10.00	Sweetened cocoa powder	16.2%	0%	11.75%
1806.20.00	Other cocoa preparations in blocks	16.2%	0%	11.75%
1806.31 / .32 / .90	Filled, unfilled and other chocolate	18%	3.25%	11.75%
1704.90	Sugar confectionery (white chocolate, caramels, sweets, dragées, pastilles)	18%	3.25%	11.75%
1905.31.00	Sweet biscuits	16.2%	0%	11.75%
1905.32.00	Waffles and wafers	16.2% (TEC rate not separately listed for this line)	0%	11.75%
1905.90.20	Crackers and plain biscuits	0%	0%	11.75%
1905.90.90	Other bakery	16.2%	0%	11.75%

Crackers and plain biscuits (1905.90.20) sit at 0% import duty under the LETEC, the Lista Brasileira de Exceções à TEC, specifically Anexo V of Res. Gecex 272/2021, added by Resolução Gecex 709/2025 from 14 March 2025 with no end date set. No other code in this table carries a similar exception. None of these codes carries the temporary 0.6 percentage-point COFINS-Importação surcharge, which applies to a separate, closed list of codes that does not include 1704, 1806 or 1905.

Labelling

General packaged-food labelling runs under RDC 727/2022, in force since 1 September 2022, which internalised Mercosur resolution GMC 26/2003 and replaced the older RDC 259/2002. Mandatory items include the product name (article 11), ingredient list (article 12), an allergen statement in the format "ALÉRGICOS: CONTÉM ..." (articles 13-15), net content (article 28), origin and manufacturer data (article 29), and, specifically for imported food, the importer's name and address (article 29 X). Gluten labelling, "contém Glúten" or "não contém Glúten," is a separate requirement under Lei 10.674/2003 article 1. Whether RDC 727/2022's own text sets a Portuguese-language requirement directly, and whether it revoked the earlier RDC 26/2015, were not confirmed while preparing this page.

Nutrition labelling runs under RDC 429/2020, in force since 9 October 2022, and requires a front-of-pack magnifying-glass symbol reading "ALTO EM ..." where the product exceeds specific thresholds for added sugar, saturated fat or sodium, under article 18. The thresholds themselves, roughly 15g/100g or 7.5g/100ml for added sugar, 6g/100g or 3g/100ml for saturated fat, and 600mg/100g or 300mg/100ml for sodium, are reached through a secondary summary rather than the Anexo XV text of IN 75/2020 directly; do not confuse this symbol with the separate RDC 24/2010 thresholds that govern advertising to children.

ICMS

Confectionery is not in the cesta básica basic-goods list in most states, with a narrow exception in São Paulo: "biscoitos de consumo popular" carries a reduced 7% effective rate there under RICMS/SP Anexo II article 3, Convênio ICMS 128/94, extended by Decreto 69.207/2024 to 31 December 2026. Outside that narrow case, chocolate, sweets, wafers and premium biscuits pay the state's general modal rate: 17% in Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Espírito Santo; 18% in São Paulo and Minas Gerais; 19% in Goiás; 19.5% in Paraná; 18% on import in Rio de Janeiro (16% plus 2% FECP; 22% is the internal sales rate, not the import rate); 20.5% in Bahia and Pernambuco. See ICMS by state for the acts behind São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Goiás, Bahia and Espírito Santo specifically.

RioComex

Confectionery under 1704 and biscuits under 1905 are eligible for RioComex. Chocolate is not: cocoa, headings 1801-1806, is explicitly on the Anexo Único exclusion list of Lei RJ 11.192/2026.

What the tax reform does not touch here

Imposto Seletivo, the new selective tax starting 1 January 2027, does not cover confectionery. Its own Anexo XVII to LC 214/2025 lists tobacco, alcohol, sugar-sweetened beverages, vehicles, vessels and aircraft, extracted minerals and lotteries; food generally, including this category, is not on it. This detail is reached through a secondary legal analysis of Anexo XVII rather than the annex text itself, and the Imposto Seletivo's own rates have not been set by law as of the date behind this page.

Landed cost, worked

Taxes only, no AFRMM, Siscomex fee or TUM, matching the landed cost estimator's ratio mode; São Paulo at its general 18% rate.

Product	State	Landed cost
Chocolate 1806.32.10	São Paulo, 18%	1.63 × CIF
Biscuits 1905.31.00	São Paulo, 18%	1.56 × CIF
Crackers 1905.90.20	São Paulo, 18%	1.36 × CIF
Caramels 1704.90	n/a	No data: not separately computed for this page

Sources

• ANVISA Comunicação track: IN 281/2024 Anexo III, reached through a municipal sanitary authority's citation (visa.jundiai.sp.gov.br); RDC 843/2024 articles 40-41 for the RDC 27/2010 revocation; ANVISA's own "Dispensa de registro" guidance for how Comunicação works.
• Federal taxes: MDIC Anexos I-X file (Res. Gecex 272/2021, including Anexo V, LETEC, and Res. Gecex 709/2025), TIPI ADE RFB 1/2026, all verified 23 September 2026.
• Labelling: RDC 727/2022, full text via a São Paulo state health-service mirror (ses.sp.bvs.br); Lei 10.674/2003 article 1; RDC 429/2020 article 18; Anexo XV thresholds via a secondary summary; RDC 24/2010 for the separate advertising-to-children thresholds.
• ICMS: São Paulo cesta básica reduction, RICMS/SP Anexo II article 3 and Decreto 69.207/2024; state modal rates as sourced on ICMS by state.
• RioComex exclusion: Lei RJ 11.192/2026, Anexo Único, confirmed directly.
• Imposto Seletivo scope: LC 214/2025 Anexo XVII, reached through a secondary legal analysis (Barbieri Advogados).

Rates verified 23 September 2026. The LETEC exception for crackers and any Imposto Seletivo rate once set can change without much notice; check the current MDIC file before relying on either.