As much as possible, Amazon sellers tend to avoid products that have an expiration date. One reason for this is due to Amazon expiration date policy.
In this blog post, I will discuss Amazon’s policy on expiration dated products for both seller-fulfilled products and FBA sellers, products subject to expiration, and how to label them.
Read until the end to find out how to prepare expiration dated products according to Amazon.
What is Amazon Expiration Date Policy?
FBA sellers should be aware and follow the Amazon expiration date policy if they don’t want their products returned to them or have their seller account deactivated due to noncompliance. However, this policy is not only applicable for FBA sellers but also to seller-fulfilled products.
Any product that has a shelf life or that can lose effectiveness over time is subject to expiration. Even if there’s no expiration date on the product packaging, as long as it can lose effectiveness after some time, it falls under Amazon’s expiration-dated product policy.
Expiration dates apply to a variety of products, including but not limited to:
- Any product with an expiration date printed on it or on its packaging is considered a perishable item
- Products for human and animal consumption, such as nutritional supplements, tea leaves, and potato chips
- Topical items for humans and animals, such as Soaps, skin creams, shampoos, cosmetics, and hair sprays
- Any cleaning products like cleaning sprays, disinfectant wipes, solutions, and detergents
- Products with perishable components, such as a coffee machine bundled with coffee.
- Any product with the PAO symbol (period after opening)
Shelf Life Requirements for Expiration-dated Products
All products that are checked in at the fulfillment center should have a remaining shelf life that allows enough time for buyers to consume in full, plus an extra 90 days. For example, a bottle of multivitamins with 180 daily servings should have a remaining shelf life of 180 days plus 90 days from when it was received at the fulfillment center.
List of Products that Fall Under It with Their Corresponding Shelf Life
| PRODUCT | SHELF LIFE |
| Beverages | 270 to 540 days |
| Baby Formula | 180 to 365 days |
| Chips | 90 to180 days |
| Oils and Salad Dressings | 270 days |
| Dried Fruits | 180 to 270 days |
| Condiments | 365 to 730 days |
| Canned Goods | 540 days |
| Mineral Supplements | 730 days |
| Pet Food and Treats | 180 to 540 days |
| Cleaning Supplies | 900 to 1,825 days |
| Personal Care and Cosmetics | 900 to 1,825 days |
| Baking Supplies and Spices | 270 to 365 days |
| Preserves and Peanut Butter | 365 days |
| Pasta | 365 days |
If you are selling any items mentioned above, you should also be familiar with the expiration-dated product attributes of Amazon. If you provide incomplete or incorrect expiration attributes, your product may be returned or disposed of.
How to Properly Label Expiration-dated products on Amazon
Amazon has its own labeling requirements for expiration dated products, and sellers must comply. Below is a guide on properly doing an FBA label on expiration-dated items.
- The expiration date or manufacturing date must be stated clearly on all ingestible products, including animal products. Lot numbers alone aren’t enough.
- Expiration dates must be properly indicated on all infant food and formula items.
- Any expiration date must be clearly written on the package. The counterpart of an expiration date is a best-by or sell-by date.
- Any date of manufacture must be properly labeled. The counterpart of the production date is a manufacture date.
- Failure to indicate the manufacturing date or expiration date on a product may result in delays in getting your products to the fulfillment center, or your products may arrive at the fulfillment facility as expired.
- Expiration dates are required on all medical devices. The label should follow this format YYYY-MM-DD.
- Products that don’t fall under medical devices can follow these date formats: MM-YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY.
- The use of numeric date formats is preferred. Dates with an alphabetical month abbreviation, for example, DD-JAN-YYYYY, are also acceptable.
- The expiration date must be printed on the box or bundle, as well as on each individual item inside the box or bundle, for all case packs, multipacks, and display boxes.
- On the product packaging, never hide the original expiration date or any other information. This includes drug facts, ingredients, distributor information, or net contents.
In addition to completing the conditions listed above, any FBA goods with an expiration date must have an Amazon barcode label. It is important to note that Amazon’s system stores the expiration date details using Coordinated Universal Time. However, because of time-zone conversions, expect that the date on the box label that you entered might have some changes.
If your items arrived at the fulfillment center are past the expiration date, they will automatically be tagged for disposal. Items that are past expiration will no longer be returned to you.
Each box can only have one expiration date per ASIN when it is shipped to Amazon’s fulfillment facilities. If each ASIN has only one expiration date, you can send several ASINs in the same package. If an ASIN has several expiration dates, the products with various expiration dates must be shipped in individual boxes.
If you are a new Amazon FBA seller and are still trying to understand FBA labels, Amazon offers an FBA label service. You can check out my article on Amazon FBA label service, to learn more about it.
Related Reading: What is Amazon FBA: Complete Amazon FBA Guide in 2023
How to Prepare Expiration Dated Products When Shipping to Amazon Warehouse
Products with an expiration date must be sealed in shipping-friendly packaging. In addition to that, expiration-dated products that need additional preparation like bubble wrap or poly-bagging should have labels with expiration dates placed outside the package so that Amazon associates can easily see the expiration date when products are checked-in.
Amazon keeps track of the shelf life once products arrive at their fulfillment centers. This is to ensure that Amazon buyers don’t receive orders that are past the expiration date.
If the product has reached the expiration date or is near the ASIN’s shelf life, it will be tagged as unsellable. Sellers have the option to get their expired items back automatically by setting them up on the Inventory Setting.
Apart from expired items, you can also request for excess inventory to be returned to you. You can read more about this in my article what happens to excess inventory to learn everything you need to know about it.
Conclusion
By following the Amazon expiration date policy, Amazon sellers can prevent their selling accounts from deactivating and removal of Amazon listings. Adhering to their policy will also avoid delays and any problems during check-in at the fulfillment center. Apart from that, you can preserve your good reputation by ensuring that your customers will not receive expired items.
What can you say about the Amazon expiration date policy? Share your thoughts in the comments below. If you’re also looking for the best Amazon FBA course, click here.