Expiration dates on FBA products

Before listing expiration-dated inventory, ensure that you adhere to the following policies and requirements. Not complying with product preparation requirements, safety requirements, and product restrictions is a violation of Amazon policy and may result in customer complaints, purchase order exclusions, account-level exclusions, and chargebacks.

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
• Consumable products such as potato chips, tea leaves, and nutritional supplements, whether for human or animal consumption
• Topical products that are intended for human or animal use, such as skin creams, soaps, shampoos, hair sprays, and cosmetics
• Cleaning products such as disinfectant wipes, cleaning sprays and solutions, and detergents
• Products that include components that can expire, such as a coffee machine that is sold bundled with coffee

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.

Labeling expiration-dated products

Expiration-dated products must follow these labeling requirements.

• All ingestible products (including animal products) must be clearly labeled with an expiration date or manufacturing date. Lot numbers alone are insufficient. Exceptions to consumable products are listed below.
• 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.
• Acceptable date formats are MM-DD-YYYY, MM-YYYY, and DD.MM.YYYY.
• 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 requires an Amazon barcode label. For more information, go to Use an Amazon barcode to track inventory and FBA Label Service.

Product Exceptions

The following products are not mandated to include an expiration date on the physical product.

• Wines, liqueur wines, sparkling wines, aromatized wines, and similar products obtained from fruit other than grapes, and beverages falling within Chinese code 2206 00 obtained from grapes or grape musts
• Beverages containing 10% or more of alcohol by volume
• Vinegar
• Cooking salt
• Solid sugar
• Confectionery products consisting almost entirely of flavored or colored sugars
• Chewing gums and similar chewing 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 an Unsellable state and an Expired disposition.

For more information, go to Required Removals. To have your unsellable products sent back to you automatically, ensure that your Automated unfulfillable settings are set to Return. For more information, go to Remove inventory automatically.