Amazon FBA prep requirements: packaging, poly bags and expiry dates

Who has to prep now

In the US, nobody at Amazon preps your inventory anymore.

So every unit is prepped before it ships, by you, your prep center or your supplier. A second change, the end of commingling, made labeling every unit a reseller's job too. Our log of Amazon rule changes has both, with their dates and Amazon's pages.

Getting it wrong costs money. Amazon's prep, packaging and labeling guide says it may refuse, return or repackage products that arrive with inadequate or noncompliant packaging, at the seller's expense. The same guide says Amazon may add prep requirements to a specific product after damage-related returns, so check a product's prep guidance before every shipment, not only the first.

Where our Amazon details come from. Amazon's full prep rules, such as Packaging and prep requirements, sit on Seller Central pages that need a sign-in, and we couldn't check their current wording, so we work from Amazon's sell.amazon.com guides, its Selling Partner API notice and Amazon staff posts on the US Seller Forums. Check the Seller Central pages in your account before you rely on a detail.

Packaging by product type

Start with one question: is each unit already in one secure package? Amazon's guide says every unit, multi-volume book sets included, must be in a single secure package, and Amazon won't accept units that need assembling from several pieces. Units in loose sleeves or pouches have to be bagged, or held with a non-adhesive band or removable tape.

Then check whether the product is one of the types that need more. Here is what Amazon asks for, product by product. Most rows come from the sell.amazon.com guide; the last two come from other Amazon pages, named in the row:

The table is a starting point, not a full list. When a seller with clothing asked about poly bags on the US Seller Forums, the Amazon staff member who answered pointed them to Seller Central's prep guidance for product-specific rules. When a product is new to you, look it up there before you buy bags for it.

Poly bags and suffocation warnings

Poly bags have the most specific rules of any prep, and they're cheap to get wrong. In that older reply on the US Seller Forums, the Amazon staff member set out the rules:

• Thickness: at least 1.5 mil. A mil is a thousandth of an inch.
• Sealed: the bag is completely sealed.
• Fit: the bag, or shrink wrap, extends no more than 3 inches past the product's dimensions.
• Warning: a bag with an opening of 5 inches or larger, measured flat, carries a suffocation warning.

Amazon's sell.amazon.com guide adds three more:

• See-through: use transparent bags, unless the product is an adult product or Amazon specifies opaque bagging for it.
• Readable label: the barcode label must be readable on the outside of the bag.
• The right size: don't force a product into a bag that's too small.

One figure doesn't match. The sell.amazon.com guide gives the thickness as "1mm". A millimeter is about 26 times the 1.5 mil in the staff reply, and poly bags in the US are sold by the mil, so we read "1mm" as a slip and work to 1.5 mil. A bag thicker than the minimum is fine. If you want Amazon's current figure, it's on the Seller Central page in your account.

The suffocation warning

The rule follows the material. In a 2026 reply, an Amazon staff member said the suffocation warning requirement applies to poly bags, meaning plastic bags. A plain paper bag with no plastic doesn't fall under it, but a paper bag with any plastic part does.

Neither staff reply gives the warning's wording or its print size, and we couldn't open Seller Central's page to check them.

The easy route is bags with the warning already printed on them. You skip a sticker on every unit, and a printed warning can't peel off in transit. A bag with an opening under 5 inches doesn't need one under the staff reply's rule, but a printed warning on a small bag does no harm.

Sets, multipacks and bundles

Sets

Amazon's guide covers items that aren't an official set but that you sell as one unit: package them together, and mark the outside with a label such as "Sold as set", "Ready to ship" or a note not to separate them. The warehouse treats the set as one unit, so it has to stay one unit. Bag it, shrink-wrap it or box it so nothing comes apart, and put one barcode label on the outside.

Before you build sets, know what's coming. Amazon's program policy changes page says that from January 11, 2027, bundles in most categories must be packaged by the manufacturer or brand, and bundles you put together yourself can be suppressed unless you hold the brand's letter of authorization. Our log of rule changes tracks it.

The guide doesn't say what to do with the barcodes on the items inside. Our advice: make sure the only barcode a scanner can find on the outside is yours. Turn the items' own barcodes inward, or cover them.

Multipacks for a pack-size listing

Plenty of wholesale listings are multipacks of one product, and the supplier sells singles. From Stef's lesson (Purchasing, at 4:16): his example purchase order line is "a two-pack listing". Each item costs $6.59 and the supplier's case holds 24, and the line carries "our prep type and prep cost, so that's sixty cents", which go into the landed cost with shipping and the placement fee.

On a pack-size listing, the sellable unit is the pack, not the single item. A case of 24 singles makes 12 two-packs, and each one is prepped like a set: two items held together, one barcode label, the single barcodes hidden. Count that work in your prep cost and the case math in your landed cost, because a multipack takes more handling than a single label.

If the product is food, a supplement or anything else people eat or put on their skin, read the next part before you make a multipack yourself.

Bundles of consumables

Amazon tightened bundles of consumables in a 2024 update, posted by its News_Amazon account on the US Seller Forums. The post describes consumables as products more likely to be ingested, applied to the skin or used by vulnerable people, and sets three rules for bundling them:

• A bundle must be packaged by the original manufacturer or brand.
• You may repackage products into a bundle only with a letter of authorization from the brand owner or manufacturer.
• Every product in a bundle must be the same brand, and the bundle must carry that brand name.

The post says new bundles had to comply straight away, and existing ones faced enforcement from January 1, 2025. It talks about bundles and doesn't mention multipacks, but a multipack you make yourself is still the brand's product repackaged, so we'd treat it the same way. For a reseller, the simple path is to sell consumables the way the brand packs them, multipacks included. Our grocery guide covers what that means for food.

The same rule is spreading. Amazon has also announced that from January 11, 2027, bundles in most categories, not only consumables, must be packaged by the manufacturer or brand, with the brand's letter of authorization as one exception. So a set or multipack you make yourself in any category is on a short clock.

Individual and case-packed boxes

Amazon's guide sorts boxes two ways. Individual products share a box but are sold separately, and can differ in SKU, condition and quantity. Case-packed products share a box with matching SKUs, conditions and quantities, usually packed that way by the manufacturer. You tell Amazon which when you build the shipment in Send to Amazon, and our Send to Amazon guide walks through both, with box contents and the size and weight limits.

Expiry dates

An expiration-dated product has its own rules on top of everything above. Amazon sets them on its expiration-dated products page in Seller Central, which needs a sign-in. The clearest public statement of them is an older post by an Amazon staff member on the US Seller Forums, FBA and Expiration Dates: Here's what you need to know. Here's what it sets out. Check the Seller Central page in your account for anything that has changed since.

What counts as dated

More than you might think. The staff post says Amazon treats any product with a shelf life, or that loses effectiveness over time, as subject to expiration, even when no date is printed on the pack. It also says perishable items aren't allowed. Amazon's grocery guide adds that some food, such as frozen and refrigerated goods, isn't eligible for FBA.

So it isn't only food. Supplements, cosmetics, many cleaning products and plenty of personal care items have a shelf life too.

How much shelf life a unit needs

The staff post's rule: when units arrive at a fulfillment center, they need enough shelf life left for the product to be used up, plus another 90 days.

Here's how that works on one example, a bottle of 60 daily capsules. For the trip to Amazon, we use the lead time from Stef's lesson (Restocking, at 1:35): twelve days from the supplier, three days of prep and four days to reach Amazon, nineteen days in all.

That's the least that gets you in the door. You still have to sell every unit well before its date, so a product that sells slowly needs more dating than the rule's minimum.

Before you order anything dated, ask the supplier how much shelf life it usually ships with. Our guide to products to avoid has the questions to ask, and when short dating means walking away.

How the date must appear

From the staff post and Amazon's grocery guide:

• On every unit, and on the carton. The outer box shows the date in 36-point type or larger, and each unit carries it too.
• In Amazon's format. MM-DD-YYYY or MM-YYYY. Numbers are preferred, but a month abbreviation such as DD-JAN-YYYY is accepted too. Medical devices use YYYY-MM-DD.
• Relabeled when the format is wrong. If the printed date is in another format, the staff post says a sticker with the date in the correct format goes over it.
• Otherwise never hidden. Don't cover the original date or other information on the pack, such as ingredients, drug facts, net contents or distributor details. Your barcode label goes somewhere else.
• A real date. Ingestible products, animal products included, need an expiration date or a manufacturing date. A lot number alone isn't enough. A best-by or sell-by date counts as an expiration date.
• Clear and permanent. The grocery guide asks for a date marked clearly and permanently on every unit.
• Outside the prep. When a dated unit is bagged or bubble wrapped, its date label goes on the outside of the bag or wrap.
• On multipacks and displays. Case packs, multipacks and display boxes carry the date on the box and on each item inside.
• With an Amazon barcode. The staff post says all expiration-dated FBA inventory needs an Amazon barcode label. For a reseller, that's every unit anyway.

Packing dated products

• One date per product in each box. The staff post says each box can hold only one expiration date per ASIN. Units of the same product with two different dates go in two boxes.
• Bundles take the soonest date. For a bundle, the post recommends using the soonest expiration date of the products inside.

What happens to expired stock

The staff post says inventory past its date, or whose date can't be confirmed, is marked unsellable, and you'll need to remove it. Amazon's health and personal care guide says Amazon disposes of expired products at your expense and sends a notification 14 days before disposal. It suggests creating removal orders for products nearing expiration, to recover some of their value.

Meltables and hazmat

Two more product types bring their own rules. A meltable, such as chocolate or gummies, only goes into FBA during the cooler part of the year, and Amazon announces the dates. Our guide to products to avoid has the latest window and Amazon's notices, and the grocery guide covers what the window means for seasonal stock. Hazmat products go through Amazon's dangerous goods review before FBA accepts them, and the products to avoid guide covers when to walk away from those too.

Neither shows on a supplier's price list. Apex Green flags hazmat and meltable products in a price list scan, so you can drop them before they reach a purchase order.

Labels

Every unit needs a barcode the warehouse can scan, and for a reseller that's an Amazon barcode: your FNSKU label.

The label rules in Amazon's guide, in short:

• 1 to 2 inches tall and 2 to 3 inches wide, black ink on non-reflective paper with an adhesive back.
• On a smooth, flat surface, away from corners, edges and curves.
• Covering the original barcode when the product goes in without extra packaging, and on the outside when it's bagged or wrapped.
• Never damaged or photocopied.
• Never over a Transparency code, and never under one.

Our FNSKU labels guide covers label stock, printers and placement in detail, and who can apply the labels for you.

The shipping box counts too. Amazon's guide says to remove, cover or cross out any old barcodes on the outside of the boxes you ship in, with opaque tape or a black marker, so the warehouse scans only your box label. Box labels themselves are printed at the end of Send to Amazon, which our step-by-step guide covers.

What a prep center checks

Whether you prep at home or pay a prep center, the same checks catch the same mistakes. Use this to brief a prep center, or to check the first carton it sends on for you.

A prep center works from what you tell it. Send written instructions for every SKU before the first shipment arrives, and update them when something changes.

Our prep center guide covers choosing one, what prep centers charge and the questions to ask before you send anything.

Every prep choice in this guide has a cost per unit, and that cost belongs in your landed cost before you buy, not after. In Apex, you enter your inbound shipping and prep costs, and Apex Blue counts them in each purchase order's landed cost, projected profit and ROI. If your prep center works in Apex, Apex Red keeps your shipments, prep center messages and prep bills together. Red is in beta and opened by invitation. When your prep center is approved on Apex, it is free for you. See how Red works.