Date- and temperature-sensitive products

Before listing products for Fulfillment by Amazon, it's important to know what is suitable for our fulfillment process and what is unsuitable. Be sure to review the other sections below for additional product requirements and restrictions:

Important: Failure to comply with FBA product preparation requirements, safety requirements, and product restrictions may result in the refusal of inventory at the Amazon fulfillment center, disposal or return of inventory, blocking of future shipments to the fulfillment center, or charging for preparation or for noncompliance at the fulfillment center.

Expiration-dated inventory requirements

Be sure to read through the following instruction manual to learn more details.

Instruction manual (Japanese)
Instruction manual (English)
Instruction manual (Chinese)

All topical and consumable products (including nutritional supplements), whether for human or animal consumption, are considered by FBA to be subject to expiration, even if an expiration date is not indicated on the packaging.

Important: Amazon considers a best-by or sell-by date the equivalent of an expiration date.

To be eligible for FBA, food and beverage products and products that ship with food or beverages must be lot-controlled and have a minimum remaining shelf life that is greater than 60 days when the inventory is checked in at the fulfillment center. Items within 45 days of the expiration date at the time of arrival will be marked for disposal by Amazon. Inventory subject to disposal cannot be returned to you. There are a few exceptions. Please refer to the guideline for more details.

Important: Expiration-dated products intended for regular application or consumption must have a remaining shelf life that includes the consumption period in addition to the 60 days.

Expiration dates must be displayed in the format YYYY/MM/DD or YYYY/MM. If the expiration date is in a different format, you must cover the existing date with a printed label with the expiration date in the correct format. Lot numbers alone are insufficient.

Tip: Numerical date formats are preferred. However, expiration dates that are stated with an alphabetical abbreviation for the month (for example, YYYY/MM/DD) are acceptable.

Any printed manufactured date must be covered with a label with the expiration date in the correct format. Failure to cover the manufactured date on a product may cause delays in receiving your products, or may cause your products to be received as expired.

Some selling categories have different expiration date requirements than the ones described above. For more information, contact Selling Partner Support.

Prepping expiration-dated products

Expiration-dated products must be fully enclosed and sealed in packaging suitable for safe and hygienic storage at Fulfillment Center and for shipping.

Important: Failure to include the expiration date on the outside of the prepped item may result in the item being re-labeled at additional cost to you.

Labeling expiration-dated products

All expiration-dated inventory requires an Amazon product label. For more information, see Use an Amazon product label to track inventory.

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