Expiry dates on FBA products
Before listing expiry-dated inventory, ensure that you adhere to the policies and requirements below. 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.
Expiry-dated product definition
Amazon considers any product with a shelf life, or that loses effectiveness with time, to be subject to expiry, even if an expiry date is not indicated on the product packaging.
Products subject to expiry include but are not limited to:
- Any product that has an expiry date printed on the product or its packaging
- Consumable products, such as potato chips, tea leaves and nutritional supplements, for human or animal consumption
- Topical products, such as skin creams, soaps, shampoos, hair sprays and cosmetics, that are intended for human or animal use
- 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 expiry-dated products
At the time of check-in at the fulfilment centre, 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 plus an additional 90 days at the time of check-in at the fulfilment centre.
The table below lists products that Amazon considers subject to expiry, along with their respective shelf-life guidelines.
| Product type | Minimum arrival time at FC before product expiry |
|---|---|
| Baby & Infant | 90 days |
| Baking Supplies | 90 days |
| Beverages | 90 days |
| Ready meals | 90 days |
| Tinned Goods | 250 days |
| Cereals | 150 days |
| Condiments/Spreads/Cooking | 100 days |
| Foreign Foods | 120 days |
| Gift Baskets & Hampers | 70 days |
| Pasta & Grains | 130 days |
| Cooking Sauces | 100 days |
| Snacks & Desserts | 70 days |
| Chocolate | 90 days |
| Boxed Chocolates | 90 days |
| Sweets | 90 days |
| Desserts | 90 days |
| Condiments | 200 days |
| Spreads | 180 days |
| Oil, Vinegar | 100 days |
| White Bread & Similar | 90 days |
| Naan, Breads, Chapatis & Poppadoms | 60 days |
| UHT Milk & Similar | 60 days |
| Juices | 90 days |
| Water | 250 days |
| Soft Drinks | 120 days |
| Tea | 300 days |
| Coffee | 150 days |
Labelling expiry-dated products
Expiry-dated products must follow these labelling requirements.
- All ingestible products (including animal products) must be clearly labelled with an expiry 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 labelled expiry date.
- Any expiry date must be clearly labelled. A best before (end) or best-by and used by date is considered the equivalent of an expiry date.
- Any manufacturing date must be clearly labelled. A manufacturing date is the equivalent of a production date.
- Failure to specify the manufacturing date or expiry date on a product might cause delays in receiving your products, or it may cause products to be received as expired at the fulfilment centre.
- Acceptable date formats are MM-DD-YYYY and 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, multi-packs and display boxes must have the expiry date on the box or bundle, as well as on each individual item inside the box or bundle.
- Do not conceal the original expiry 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 expiry-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 expiry date on the physical product.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables, including potatoes, which have not been peeled, cut or similarly treated. Does not apply to sprouting seeds and similar products, such as legume sprouts
- Wines, liqueur wines, sparkling wines, aromatised wines and similar products obtained from fruit other than grapes, and beverages falling within CN code 2206 00 obtained from grapes or grape musts
- Beverages containing 10% or more of alcohol by volume
- Bakers’ or pastry cooks’ wares that are normally consumed within 24 hours of their manufacture
- Vinegar
- Cooking salt
- Solid sugar
- Confectionery products consisting almost entirely of flavoured and/or coloured sugars
- Chewing gums and similar chewing products
- Our system stores the expiry 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 expiry at the time of arrival at Amazon fulfilment centres will be marked for disposal. Inventory subject to disposal cannot be returned to you.
- When shipping products to our fulfilment centres, each box can have only one expiry date per ASIN. You can ship multiple ASINs in the same box as long as each ASIN has only one expiry date. If there are multiple expiry dates for the same ASIN, the products with different expiry dates must be shipped in separate boxes.
Prepping expiry-dated products
Expiry-dated products must be fully enclosed and sealed in packaging suitable for shipping. Expiry-dated products that require additional preparation, such as poly-bagging or bubble wrap, must have labels with expiry dates applied to the outside of the product prep or packaging to ensure that the expiry date is accessible to Amazon associates during the check-in process.
Inventory control at Amazon fulfilment centres
Once products have arrived at our fulfilment centres, we monitor their shelf life to protect our customers from receiving products past expiry. Unsold inventory that passes its expiry 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 (overview).
