Does Plastic Packaging Tax Apply to Vacuum Pouches?

Plastic Packaging Tax applies to vacuum pouches, but most food businesses that use them don't pay it directly. HMRC charges it to whoever manufactures or imports the finished packaging in the UK, at £228.82 per tonne from 1 April 2026, on any packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic. If you buy pouches from a UK manufacturer, the liability sits with them.

Plastic Packaging Tax at a glance

Question	Answer
Who pays	UK manufacturers and importers of finished plastic packaging components
Threshold	10 tonnes or more in the last 12 months, or expected in the next 30 days
What's taxed	Plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic by weight
Rate from 1 April 2026	£228.82 per tonne
Started	1 April 2022, at £200 per tonne
Run by	HM Revenue & Customs

Source: HMRC guidance on GOV.UK. The rate has gone up every April since the tax started, so check GOV.UK for the current figure if you're reading this after March 2027.

Do I have to pay it on the pouches I buy?

If you buy from a UK manufacturer: no. You're the end user of packaging that's already been made, and the manufacturer accounts for the tax.

If you import pouches yourself, from Europe or further afield: possibly. Importing counts the same as manufacturing. Once your imports of finished plastic packaging reach 10 tonnes in 12 months, you have to register with HMRC and pay. That's a lot of pouches for a single butcher, but a meat processor or a group buying direct from an overseas factory can get there. And the 10 tonnes counts all your imported plastic packaging, not just pouches.

Imported packaging that's already wrapped around goods counts too. If you import vacuum-packed product, the pouch around it is imported packaging.

Why don't vacuum pouches meet the 30% recycled test?

Two reasons. First, recycled content is only allowed in packaging where it also meets food contact rules. Recycled plastic cleared for direct contact with raw meat, fish and cheese is in short supply, and most of what exists is PET for drinks bottles. Second, a vacuum pouch is a multilayer film. The polyamide layer holds the oxygen out and the polyethylene layer makes the seal. Swap in recycled material and you risk the barrier and the seal, which are the two things the pouch is there for. The film guide explains the layers.

So in practice, food-contact vacuum pouches are taxed packaging.

How much does it add per pouch?

Very little, because pouches are light. The tax is per tonne of plastic, so £228.82 a tonne is about 23p per kilo of film. A 200×300mm pouch in 65 micron film is two layers of 0.2m × 0.3m, which comes to roughly 8 grams of plastic. At 23p a kilo that's about 0.2p of tax per bag, or around £1.80 on a box of 1,000 200×300mm pouches. Gauge matters more than size here: a 130 micron pouch uses twice the film of a 65 micron one of the same size, so it carries twice the tax.

That's one more reason to use the thinnest film that does the job. The gauge guide shows where 65 micron is enough.

What about packaging EPR?

Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility is a different scheme, run by the environmental regulators rather than HMRC, and it's the one more likely to affect a food business directly. Packing or filling packaging counts as a producer activity, so a business that vacuum packs its own product and sells it can be in scope.

• Under 25 tonnes of packaging a year, or turnover of £1 million or less: no obligation.
• Between 25 and 50 tonnes, with turnover over £1 million: a small producer, which means registering and reporting packaging data once a year.
• Over 50 tonnes and turnover over £2 million: a large producer, reporting every six months and paying waste disposal fees.
• Large and small producers both keep records for seven years.

Those tonnages count all the packaging you handle, cardboard and trays included, not just pouches. GOV.UK has a checker for both schemes.

What a pouch supplier can give you

If your accountant or a customer's procurement team asks, the useful things to have on file are the film specification, a declaration of compliance for food contact, and confirmation of where the pouches were made. Ask us and we'll send all of them. The buying direct guide covers what else to ask a supplier.

This guide explains how the rules work. It isn't tax advice. If you import packaging or think you're near either threshold, check GOV.UK or speak to your accountant.