Are Groceries Taxed in Wisconsin? Taxed Items and Local Rates

Groceries in Wisconsin are mostly not taxed. The state’s 5% sales tax exempts “food and food ingredients” under Wisconsin Statute § 77.54(20n), but five categories stay fully taxable: candy, soft drinks, prepared food, dietary supplements, and alcoholic beverages.¹ Everything in your grocery store that isn’t food at all (cleaning supplies, paper goods, pet food, cosmetics) is also taxed. So whether you pay sales tax at checkout depends on what’s in your cart, not where you shopped.

What Counts as Tax-Free Food

Wisconsin defines “food and food ingredient” as any substance sold for human ingestion or chewing, consumed for taste or nutritional value.² The Department of Revenue’s grocer guidance lists the usual suspects as exempt: fresh and frozen produce, meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, bread, cereal, cooking oil, canned goods, frozen dinners, bakery items like cookies and donuts, chips, coffee, unsweetened cocoa, condiments, spices, baby food, and ice cream.³ The test is simple. If it’s meant to be eaten and it doesn’t fall into one of the five taxable buckets below, you don’t pay sales tax on it.

The Five Grocery Items That Are Taxed

Candy

Wisconsin defines candy as a sweetened preparation (using sugar, honey, or artificial sweeteners) combined with chocolate, fruit, nuts, or other flavorings, shaped into bars, drops, or pieces.² A chocolate bar, gummies, hard candy. Two things pull a product out of the candy category:

Flour on the ingredient label. If the word “flour” appears anywhere in the ingredients, the product isn’t candy for tax purposes. A Twix bar contains flour, so it’s exempt. A granola bar listing “peanut flour” is exempt. A granola bar that says “whole grain” without the word “flour” is still taxable candy if it otherwise fits the definition.⁴
Refrigeration. If the product has to be refrigerated, it isn’t candy no matter what else is in it.

This is why two near-identical snack bars sitting next to each other on the shelf can get taxed differently. Check the fine print if it matters to you.

Soft Drinks

A soft drink is any beverage under 0.5% alcohol that contains natural or artificial sweeteners. Soda, energy drinks, sweetened iced tea, sweetened water. Two carve-outs keep a sweetened drink tax-free:²

It contains milk or a milk product (including soy, rice, and similar milk substitutes).
It contains more than 50% vegetable or fruit juice by volume.

A sweetened latte in a bottle is exempt. A lemonade with 60% real juice is exempt. A 10%-juice fruit punch with added sugar is a taxable soft drink. The number on the label decides it.

Prepared Food

Food becomes “prepared food” and taxable the moment it hits any of these triggers:²

Sold hot (rotisserie chicken from the warming case, hot soup, hot deli items).
Heated by the retailer, like a sandwich the deli toasts for you.
Sold with eating utensils made available by the retailer: plates, bowls, forks, spoons, knives, cups, napkins, or straws.
Two or more ingredients mixed by the retailer and sold as a single item, like a custom deli salad.

The utensil rule is the sneaky one. The utensils don’t have to be handed to you. If forks and napkins are set out at the deli counter next to the salad, the salad is taxable. The same cold rotisserie chicken sealed in a container is exempt; hot from the warmer, it’s taxed.

Dietary Supplements

Vitamins, mineral tablets, herbal supplements, protein powders, and amino acid capsules are all taxable. The statute defines a dietary supplement as a product intended to supplement a diet, containing ingredients like vitamins, minerals, herbs, amino acids, or concentrates, sold in forms like tablets, capsules, powders, or liquids, and labeled as a dietary supplement under federal FDA rules.² The quick visual test: if the label has a “Supplement Facts” panel instead of a “Nutrition Facts” panel, you’re paying sales tax on it.

Alcoholic Beverages

Any beverage at or above 0.5% alcohol by volume is always taxed. Beer, wine, spirits, hard seltzer, and cooking wine all qualify.² They’re excluded from the “food and food ingredient” definition entirely, so the grocery exemption never reaches them.

Items That Sit Right on the Line

A handful of common purchases cause the most confusion at checkout.

Bottled Water

Unsweetened bottled water is tax-free, including carbonated and flavored versions. Plain sparkling water, unsweetened flavored seltzer, and regular bottled water are all exempt. Add any sweetener and the bottle becomes a taxable soft drink.⁵

Coffee and Tea

Coffee beans, ground coffee, freeze-dried coffee, and unsweetened tea are exempt.³ Ready-to-drink coffee and tea follow the soft drink rules: sweetened plus milk means exempt, sweetened without milk means taxable.⁵

Granola and Snack Bars

Flour on the ingredient list makes the bar exempt food. No flour, and a sweetened bar is taxable candy. Any kind of flour counts: wheat, rice, peanut.⁴

Juice and Fruit Drinks

More than 50% real fruit or vegetable juice by volume, and the bottle is exempt even with sweeteners added. Below 50% juice with any sweetener, and it’s a taxable soft drink.² That’s why 100% orange juice rings up tax-free and a 10% fruit punch doesn’t.

Non-Food Items at the Grocery Store

Buying something at a grocery store doesn’t give it grocery treatment. Everything that isn’t food or a food ingredient is subject to the full sales tax:

Cleaning supplies: dish soap, laundry detergent, disinfectant wipes, all-purpose cleaners.
Paper products: paper towels, toilet paper, facial tissues, napkins.
Health and beauty: shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, cosmetics.
Pet food and pet supplies. A can of tuna for people is exempt; a can of tuna cat food is not.
Household goods: light bulbs, batteries, trash bags, aluminum foil.

Over-the-counter medicines like aspirin and antacids are taxable in Wisconsin, as are gum, ice cubes, and ginseng sold as a dietary supplement.³

Diapers and Menstrual Products

Both are now exempt from Wisconsin sales tax. The 2023 budget added an exemption covering diapers, tampons, pads, menstrual cups, panty liners, and similar products.⁶ You should see no tax on these items at the register.

What You Actually Pay: State Plus Local Rates

The 5% figure is only the state piece. Seventy of Wisconsin’s 72 counties add a 0.5% county sales tax that applies to the same items the state tax covers, so you’ll usually pay 5.5% on taxable grocery items.⁷

Milwaukee is the outlier. Milwaukee County’s rate is 0.9%, and the City of Milwaukee layers its own 2% sales and use tax on top. A taxable grocery item bought in the City of Milwaukee carries a combined 7.9% rate.⁷

Local rates only change the number, not the list. If an item is exempt from the state tax, it’s exempt from county and city taxes too. A bag of apples stays tax-free in Milwaukee.

SNAP and WIC Purchases

Pay with SNAP (food stamps) or WIC and no sales tax applies to that portion of your order. Federal law bars states from taxing items bought with SNAP, which overrides Wisconsin’s taxable categories. Candy and soft drinks ring up tax-free when SNAP covers them. WIC-approved items work the same way. If you split a bill between SNAP and your own card, only the SNAP portion is protected; the taxable items paid out of pocket are still taxed.

1
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes 77.54 (2025) – General Exemptions
2
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Statutes Taxation (Ch. 70 to 79) 77.51
3
Wisconsin Department of Revenue. Publication 220 – Grocers
4
Streamlined Sales Tax. Rule 327.8 – Food and Food Ingredients Definitions – Candy
5
Wisconsin State Legislature. Wisconsin Administrative Code Tax 11.51
6
Wisconsin State Legislature. 2023 Budget Bill – Sales Tax Exemption for Diapers and Feminine Hygiene Products
7
Wisconsin Department of Revenue. DOR Tax Rates