FAQ: Compliance with Amazon's Dietary Supplements Policy

Amazon’s dietary supplements testing program includes a testing policy and product review to verify the quality and safety of dietary supplement products sold on Amazon. NSF partners with you to ensure that the appropriate tests are conducted to align with this Policy based on your product type. The product review includes gathering Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certificates from your manufacturer, images of the product’s label, and testing results to review against Amazon’s Dietary Supplements Policy standards. Once the testing and product review is completed, a pass/fail status is reported directly to the selling partner and Amazon.

Amazon will notify you of the testing requirements for your product. Follow the Amazon process for requesting testing services and select the laboratory for the certification. To choose NSF, start at the Amazon Seller Central page.

If you have any questions about what is required, contact NSF's dedicated Amazon Seller support center by email: AmazonSupport@nsf.org or call +1 313 456 8832.

NSF's customer support staff is available to speak with you from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm EST, Monday through Friday.

NSF provides both testing and certification options to comply with Amazon’s new dietary supplement policy:

Testing: NSF offers the testing required to meet Amazon’s new policy. Our Seller Portal is open and processing requests.

Certification: NSF also offers certification, providing an additional quality assessment, assurance, and important brand differentiation. Products that are Certified to NSF/ANSI 173 or NSF 229 are automatically compliant with Amazon’s policy. NSF Certification also acts as a pre-qualifier for other retailers.

Both product compliance testing and NSF Certification are valid for one year (12 months) and must be renewed annually to remain compliant with the policy.

There is not a one-fee service for each ASIN. Costs vary depending on the extent of the ingredients in the product and are broken down by fees associated with contaminants, adulterants, label claim verification, and product certification.

The NSF Seller Portal will walk you through your submission and calculate your individual cost based on your product.

You can trust our team of expert laboratory and product specialists to test your product and return accurate results in a timely manner.

NSF maintains and facilitates the development of NSF/ANSI 173 Dietary Supplements, the only American National Standard for testing and certifying dietary supplements.

We excel in ensuring compliance in nutritional, cosmetic, personal care, and over-the-counter industries by leveraging our extensive industry expertise and 80 years of independent testing, auditing, and certifying. Our unmatched scientific expertise and trusted credentials support our commitment to the highest industry standards.

Specific to ingredient and product testing, NSF evaluates the composition of dietary supplements, cosmetics, personal care products, and ingredients to verify that the supplement facts panel reflects the product’s contents or that the certificate of analysis for the ingredient accurately depicts its identity and purity specifications.

You will be notified by Amazon if your ASIN requires compliance verification check against their Dietary Supplements Policy. We can assist your company in testing your product(s).

You can then choose one of three NSF testing paths for each ASIN:

1. Amazon label and contaminant testing requirements + adulterant panel
2. NSF/ANSI 173 product certification
3. If the product is already certified to NSF/ANSI 173, NSF will validate your certification for Amazon

Many companies use this as an opportunity to certify their products to the NSF/ANSI 173 standard. Only products certified by NSF to NSF/ANSI 173 may bear the exclusive NSF Contents Certified mark on product packaging, increasing consumer and retailer confidence.

NSF requires some information from you to help us test your product and deliver accurate results promptly. We encourage you to have this information available when starting the testing process.

The following information is required for each product in the Amazon Dietary Supplements Policy:

1. Amazon Standard Identification Number (ASIN)
2. Global Trade Item Number (GTIN)
3. The Universal Product Code (UPC) for each product
4. The product brand name as used for Amazon
5. The product trade name or ASIN Title as used for Amazon
6. Product description
7. The package sizes and counts of each product listed
8. The facility name and address where each ASIN is manufactured
9. Documentation of a current (unexpired, issued within the last 12 months) Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification for each manufacturing location listed in the table, issued by an approved certifier.

If you have any questions about what is required, contact NSF's dedicated Amazon Seller support center by email: AmazonSupport@nsf.org or call +1 313 456-8832.

NSF's customer support staff is available to speak with you from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm EST, Monday through Friday.

Seller Partners can request that products with similar formulas and manufacturing procedures be grouped in a process called Product Bracketing.

To proceed with bracketing, Seller Partner attests that the manufacturing location and raw material specification numbers for all matching dietary and functional ingredients in all products submitted for bracketing into a single group are the same.

Products may be bracketed based on the following criteria:

The products are made in the same manufacturing facility, and one or more of the following:

• Products differ only in select, nonfunctional ingredients. E.g.: flavoring, excipients, coloring, or
• Label claims or functional ingredients in each product are the same, differing only in amounts, or
• Label claims or functional ingredients in one product in a group that encompasses every ingredient in the rest (usually with additional ingredients)

Category: Group 1 dietary supplements (sexual enhancement and wellness, weight loss or management, sports nutrition muscle building, and joint health and wellness) have the following options:

The product is subject to the following Amazon controls:

1. Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Certificate validation by 3^rd party (NSF)
   1. Label review for unauthorized health claims or misleading claims
   2. Risk-based label claim testing (first 5 claims 100%, 1 more for each 1-5 above that)
   3. Contaminant and adulterant testing specified by the Amazon scheme, or
2. The product is NSF/ANSI 173 certified.

Many companies embarking on this Amazon dietary supplements testing program also decide to progress to certification to the NSF/ANSI 173 standard. In addition to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification and product/ingredient testing, NSF certifies dietary supplements to NSF/ANSI 173, the only American National Standard for testing and certifying dietary supplements.

Our expert team of chemists, microbiologists, and toxicologists works in testing laboratories in the US, Europe, and China. Unique to our certification program, we conduct annual audits and periodically retest certified products to ensure continued compliance with the most rigorous quality standards in the world for dietary supplements.

Only products certified by NSF to NSF/ANSI 173 may bear the exclusive NSF Contents Certified mark on product packaging, increasing consumer and retailer confidence.

To ensure a safer product reaches consumers, NSF Contents Certified assesses products and ingredients for:

• Contaminants that impact health, including the toxic elements lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, and chromium (VI)
• Aerobic microorganisms, yeast and molds, and Enterobacteriaceae, specifically for the potential pathogens Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus
• Mycotoxins, which are released by fungi and are hepatotoxic
• Pesticides if the item contains botanical materials

If you have any questions about what is required, contact NSF's dedicated Amazon Seller support center by email: AmazonSupport@nsf.org or call +1 313 456-8832.

NSF's customer support staff is available to speak with you from 7:30 am to 8:30 pm EST, Monday through Friday.