Before listing expiration-dated
inventory, ensure that you adhere to the following policies and requirements. Failure to comply may result in removal of your listings,
disposal of your inventory, or deactivation of your Amazon selling account.
Expiration-dated product definition
Amazon considers any product with a shelf life, or that loses effectiveness with
time, to be subject to expiration, even if an expiration date is not indicated on
the product packaging.
Products subject to expiration include, but are not limited to, the following:
-
Any product that has an expiration date printed on the product or its
packaging
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Consumable products such as potato chips, tea leaves, and nutritional
supplements, whether for human or animal consumption
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Topical products that are intended for human or animal use, such as skin
creams, soaps, shampoos, hair sprays, and cosmetics
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Cleaning products such as disinfectant wipes, cleaning sprays and solutions,
and detergents
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Products that include components that can expire, such as a coffee machine
that is sold bundled with coffee
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Any product with a period-after-opening (PAO) symbol
(image below)
Shelf-life requirements for expiration-dated products
At the time of check-in at Amazon fulfillment center, all products must have a
remaining shelf life that allows sufficient time for the product to be consumed in
full, plus an additional 90 days. For example, a bottle of supplements with 240
daily servings must have a remaining shelf life of 240 days and an additional 90
days, which makes 330 days.
The following table lists products that Amazon considers subject to expiration, along
with their respective shelf-life guidelines.
Note: This is not an exhaustive list and is intended as a guide only.
Product |
Minimum arrival time at the fulfillment center before product
expiry |
Chips and other snacks |
90 days |
Dried fruit |
180 days |
Baby formula |
180 days |
Cereal and granola bars |
180 days |
Pet food and treats |
180 days |
Beverages such as coffee, tea, soda, and juice |
270 days |
Salad dressings and oils |
270 days |
Flour, spices, and baking supplies |
270 days |
Peanut butter, jams, and preserves |
365 days |
Pasta |
365 days |
Condiments, including iodized salt, and pepper |
365 days |
Candy |
540 days |
Canned food |
540 days |
Herbal or mineral supplements |
730 days |
Cleaning supplies |
900 days |
Personal care and beauty products (shampoos, soaps, lotions,
makeup, fragrances) |
900 days |
Labeling expiration-dated products
Expiration-dated products must follow these labeling requirements.
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All ingestible products (including animal products) must be clearly labeled with
an expiration date or manufacturing date. Lot numbers alone are insufficient.
-
All baby food and baby formula products must have a clearly labeled expiration
date.
-
Any expiration date must
be clearly labeled. A best-by or
sell-by date is considered the equivalent of an expiration date.
-
Any manufacturing date must be clearly labeled. A manufacturing date is the
equivalent of a production date.
-
Failure to specify the manufacturing
date or expiration date on a product might cause delays in receiving your
products, or it may cause products to be received as expired at the fulfillment
center.
-
All medical devices must have expiration dates. They must be
clearly labeled using YYYY-MM-DD format.
-
For products other than medical devices, acceptable date
formats are:
-
Numeric date formats are
preferred. However, dates with an alphabetical abbreviation for the month (for
example, DD-JAN-YYYY) are also acceptable.
-
All case packs, multipacks, and
display boxes must have the expiration date on the box or bundle, as well as on
each individual item inside the box or bundle.
-
Do not conceal the original
expiration date or other information on the product packaging (such as
ingredients, drug facts, net contents, or distributor information).
In addition to meeting the requirements above, all expiration-dated FBA inventory
also requires an Amazon barcode label. However, you are
exempted if you are an authorized reseller for the ASIN enrolled under Amazon Brand Registry program. For more information on
labeling requirements, go to Use an Amazon barcode to track inventory and FBA Label Service.
Important:
-
Our system stores the expiration date information in Coordinated Universal
Time (UTC). Due to time-zone conversions, the date on the box label might
differ from what you originally entered.
-
Items that are past expiration at the time of arrival at Amazon
fulfillment centers will be marked for disposal. Inventory subject to
disposal cannot be returned to you.
-
When shipping products to our fulfillment centers, each box can have only
one expiration date per ASIN. You can ship multiple ASINs in the same box as
long as each ASIN has only one expiration date. If there are multiple
expiration dates for the same ASIN, the products with different expiration
dates must be shipped in separate boxes.
-
Inventory cannot be sold past its printed expiration date even if granted an
exemption by regulatory bodies. This includes US FDA updates to the useful
life of COVID-19 test kits. For more information on how to handle COVID-19
products, go to Expiration-dated COVID-19 products.
Prepping expiration-dated products
Expiration-dated products must be fully enclosed and sealed in packaging that is
suitable for shipping. Expiration-dated products that require additional
preparation, such as poly-bagging or bubble wrap, must have labels with expiration
dates applied to the outside of the product prep or packaging. This is to ensure
that the expiration date is accessible to Amazon associates during the check-in
process.
Inventory control at Amazon fulfillment centers
Once products have arrived at our fulfillment centers, we monitor their shelf life to
protect our customers from receiving products past expiration. Unsold inventory that passes its expiration date, or
is close to exceeding the shelf life of the ASIN, is set to unsellable status.
To have your unsellable products sent back to you automatically, ensure that our
inventory settings are set to do so. For more information, go to Remove inventory automatically.
Helpful links
FBA Labeling Video Tutorials
FBA product barcode requirements
Remove inventory (overview)
Expiration dates on FBA products
Expiration-dated product attributes