It is important to adhere to our policy before listing expiration-dated inventory. Failure to comply may result in removal of your listings or deactivation of your Amazon selling account, or disposal of your inventory as per applicable law and the Business Solutions Agreement.
Amazon considers any product that has an end of shelf life or loses effectiveness with time to be subject to expiration, even if an expiration date is not indicated on the product packaging. This includes products that have components that can expire, such as a coffee machine that is sold bundled with a coffee set.
Products subject to expiration include but are not limited to:
Any product with a Period After Opening (PAO) symbol (image below).
As per the amendments to the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules in 2011, the Government of India has made it mandatory to display certain product information, including “'Best before or use by date, month, and year" in case of packages that contain a commodity which may become unfit for human consumption after a period of time, on online e-commerce marketplaces. Display of 'Best before date' rule was rolled out in phases to all Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) products starting September 20, 2018.
At the time of check-in at the fulfilment centre, all products must have a remaining shelf life that allows sufficient time to consume the product in full and additional 90 days. For example, a bottle of daily supplements with 240 daily servings must have a remaining shelf life of 240 days and an additional 90 days at the time of check-in at the fulfilment centre.
See below for a list of products Amazon considers subject to expiration with respective shelf life suggestions. This is not an exhaustive list and are intended as suggestions only.
Product | Shelf Life |
Chips and Other Snacks | 90-180 days |
Dried Fruit | 180-270 days |
Baby Formula | 180-365 days |
Cereal and Granola Bars | 180-365 days |
Pet Food and Treats | 180-540 days |
Beverages, such as Coffee, Tea, Soda, Juice | 270-540 days |
Salad Dressing and Oils | 270 days |
Flour, Spices, Baking Supplies | 270-365 days |
Peanut Butter, Jams and Preserves | 365 days |
Pasta | 365 days |
Condiments including salt, pepper, sugar | 365-730 days |
Candy | 540 days |
Canned Food | 540 days |
Herbal/Mineral Supplements | 730 days |
Cleaning Supplies | 900-1825 days |
Personal Care and Beauty Products (Shampoo, Soaps, Lotion, Makeup, Fragrances) | 900-1825 days |
The Amazon fulfilment centre will accept the items having an expiration date only if they comply with the below packing requirements.
For examples of how to prep your products for shipment to and storage in Amazon fulfilment centres, watch this video.
In addition to meeting all requirements listed above, all expiration-dated FBA inventory requires an Amazon Barcode label. For more information, see Use an Amazon barcode to track inventory and FBA Label Service
Note:
Once products have arrived at our fulfilment centres, we monitor their shelf life to protect our customers from receiving products past expiration or near expiration. Unsold inventory that passes its expiration date or is close to expiration date will be set to unsellable status at our fulfilment centres.
At the time of check-in at the fulfilment centre, all products must have a remaining shelf life that allows sufficient time to consume the product in full and additional 90 days.
For automated returns of your unsellable products, set your inventory settings as appropriate. To learn more, visit remove inventory automatically.
FBA Product Barcode Requirements
When a perishable product is inbounded to our fulfilment centre, we track the production date or expiration date printed on the product. If ‘expiration date’ is mentioned, then we track this date against the new shipment batch. If manufacturing date is mentioned, then our systems compute the expiration date by adding shelf life. We then display the expiration date of the product batch to the customer on the Detail Page.
Yes, the “Best Before Date” will be updated when a new shipment is received after the older inventory is out of stock. If you have older inventory in stock, then the date shown to the customer will be based on the expiration date of the old inventory.
Grocery, HPC, Baby, Beauty, Prestige Beauty and Pets categories from Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) will show the expiration date of a product.
Please refer to the Updating Expiration Attributes Help page.