Food

These are the most common tax-free basic grocery products:

• fresh, frozen, canned and vacuum-sealed fruits and vegetables
• breakfast cereals
• most milk products
• fresh meat, poultry and fish
• eggs
• coffee beans

Bread products like bagels, English muffins, croissants, scones, tea biscuits, and bread rolls that don't have sweetened fillings or coatings are tax-free. That includes:

• tortilla and taco shells
• savoury and meat pies
• doughs of all kinds, including puff pastry and cookie dough
• pie shells, vol-au-vent, and phyllo leaves
• English muffins without a sweetened filling or coating
• soft pretzels
• crackers (excluding graham crackers), including:
  • soda crackers
  • salted crackers
  • table water crackers
  • cream crackers
  • rice crackers
  • crispbread
  • snacking crackers (including vegetable, bacon or cheese flavoured)
  • wheat thins
  • toasts
  • breadsticks
  • rusks
  • unsweetened rice cakes

Mixed, cut vegetables that are packaged and promoted as a "stir-fry" or "chop suey mix" and mixed vegetable sprouts aren't considered salads so the items are tax-free.

Also, a package that contains the ingredients for a salad — like lettuce, croutons and dressing in separate containers — and isn't pre-mixed is tax-free.

Frozen sandwiches and frozen uncooked pizzas don't have GST/HST applied.

Condiments like ketchup, mustard and relish are also tax-free.

These baking ingredients are tax-free:

• bulk industrial chocolate
• chocolate chips
• baker's chocolate
• liquid chocolate icing
• edible cake decorations packaged and sold as cake decorations
• fondue chocolate
• chocolate spread
• angelica and cocktail cherries

Pudding, flavoured gelatine, mousse, flavoured whipped dessert products or any other products similar to pudding are tax-free when prepared and pre-packaged for babies.

Meal replacements and nutritional supplements are tax-free if not sold from a vending machine.

Also, energy bars and protein bars that qualify as meal replacements or nutritional supplements are tax-free if not sold from vending machines.

You have to pay GST/HST on most snacks, except for these tax-free items:

• unpopped popcorn kernels, including microwave popcorn kernels (salted or otherwise)
• mixtures of nuts in their natural state (not seasoned, roasted or shelled)

Cooking wines (including de-alcoholized cooking wines) that are sold as condiments and normally purchased in grocery stores are tax-free.

Drinks

These are the drinks that you can get tax-free even when the GST/HST break ends:

• plain bottled water sold in manufacturers' packages of two or more single-serving bottles, or in a bottle that exceeds a single-serving
• meal replacements, nutritional supplements and formulated liquid diet products except when sold from a vending machine
• syrups, crystals, powders and flavourings for making beverages (excluding fruit flavours)
• beverages (other than unflavoured milk) that are prepared and pre-packaged specifically for babies