How to get approved to sell on Amazon [ 11 Food Package Requirements to Sell Food online ]

 How to get approved to sell on Amazon [ 11 Food Package Requirements to Sell Food online ] Here are the 11 things to follow when you package your food products to sell on amazon. Want to see how to get approved to sell food on Amazon.

So, if you are looking to sell groceries on Amazon or start selling your own food

Items on Amazon, I'm going to give you the 11 product requirements in order for you to sell a food product through amazon.com. And we're going to get into that right now. All right. So it's Damien from Armani food online. So in this video, I'm going to cover the 11 product requirements that Amazon requires in order for you to sell in the grocery and gourmet foods category. Okay. So these 11 are not in any particular order. You definitely just want to go through each one of these and make sure that you comply with what they've got here in order for you to also apply for and get ungated to sell food on amazon.com. And as always, if this is your first video for marketing for the line. Welcome. My name is Damien Roberto founder and CEO of marketing food online, and we are getting ready to cover the 11 tips that I highly recommend you follow in order for you to sell food on Amazon, let's get into it.

So, number one, it's going to be your packaging. Food must properly be prepared, sealed, labeled, and packaged as per our Amazon's requirements for you to get your product online. Now, what does that exactly mean? Well, make sure that if you're producing the product, if it happens to be baked goods of some kind, you need to fully bake them. If you're making a granola, you make, make sure they're completely sealed, packaged, and ready to go. And of course, labeled with the appropriate labels, number two, you must be licensed or have the approval from relevant government agencies for the products you plan to sell. So that would be anything from local governments, having a business license, making sure that you're in the right zoning area. It's if you're renting a commercial space, make sure that you've got the right type of license, a business insurance for that specific space, if you're making it.

So just be aware of local ordinances, regulations, and zoning issues that may come up because they definitely still want you to comply with that as well. Number three. So you must ensure our product. You make sure your products, our business operations comply with federal state laws. So as I mentioned, they said, this includes laws that are not described in Amazon policy. So if there's anything specific to your state, because every state does have a variety of laws in regards to food businesses and how they operate. So you want to double-check on those as well, even if they're not listed in Amazon's policies, because they require you to follow, follow, and abide by them. So if you're in a city or county that requires a certain permit or a food handler's card or something to that effect, make sure that you get that in place as well.

Number four, sell all grocery and gourmet food products as new. So you can't list anything that's food or edible or related as used products. And again, that may sound kind of like, well, no, no, it's common sense to know Doug, of course you can, but believe it or not, there's a lot people who go on eBay. That's the, and I've seen listings that actually do this and they have products and they listed as used because they buy it and they resell it and they don't realize that it's not used, it's actually brand new. So if you're also producing your product and you're making it fresh to order, that happens to be your business model, make sure that it is listed as new. Okay. Now again, these are requirements set up by Amazon and I'm just elaborating on what they specifically state on their website that you need to make sure that you abide by.

Because the one thing about the gourmet food category is that it is different than other types of categories to sell out. Of course you have to get ungated, but it's also that when it comes to food, they're a little more stringent and they want you to follow the, by any FDA USDA local county cities and state ordinances because selling food is a little more trickier because people can potentially get sick and get ill from products if it's not handled properly, shipped properly and such. So it definitely a little bit more stringent, but I definitely understand why. And I highly recommend you look a little more into these. So what I'll do also down below is I'll, I'll send the link to our blog, where I recap all this information and help you do a little more research on your head. Number five, food is viewed as a date sensitive item.

Okay? So it must have an expiration date permanently marked on every single unit, unless the product is exempt. So this would include units that are shipped and every single unit that's displayed for sale. So anything that you're going to send to a customer, make sure if, of course, especially if you're producing a product and maybe printing your own labels, you want to make sure that, that date sensitive expiration date or best by date, because they actually view the two as the same. So a product must have a best buy date or expiration date permanently on each individually unit. Okay. So number six, keep the fulfillment sits or shelf life details up to date for your grocery products. Okay. So basically what that means the fulfillment center shelf life is the length of time and essence of a product. Okay? So like the time that you can sell a product and it's fit to be eaten.

So if you have a product that has to be, it's expiring very soon or shortly, and you happen to be using FBA and you're selling a food product through the FDA, you want to make sure that you've got it within. I think it's a 50 day period. If I'm not mistaken prior to the expiration date, because what will happen is that Amazon will actually pull the product to dispose of it. And they'll charge you a pulling fee as well, if you're utilizing FBA for that purpose. Okay. So you want to stay on top of it. So if you send a batch of your food products in, and you've got a specified best by date, and it's approaching that and you have inventory, you need to either pull it or have them send it back or dispose of it and then says fresher product. That's something that's really kind of tricky. And a lot of people don't realize about FBA when it comes to a food product. Okay.

So number seven labels must all be in English for all products covered by federal state and local laws. So for the federal labeling policies and such, you need to double

Check the FDA website. And what I'll do is, again, down below, I'll send the link down there. So you can look at that actual page on the website about labeling nutritional information. Okay. But of course there are some exemptions. As I mentioned, some of my videos there are some exemptions to check out the FDA website for those exemptions, but all in all, when you're going to utilize Amazon, you want to make sure that you've got your nutritional label, your ingredient listings, and I highly still recommend to a barcode. And we'll get into that the second, that UPC code as well, that's going to make basically accepting your inventory when you send it to Amazon a lot smoother process, and they'll get it into inventory. Number eight, enclose and seal food and packaging suitable for your shipping. Okay? So this is a little, this, a little tricky, because if you're new to this, they're shipping a product.

If you're not going to use FBA, okay, what you need to look into is how to ship your product. And what I mean by that is if you do have products that are sensitive to heat, like chocolate covered. So those are something that are chocolate covered items. Make sure you kind of experiment with that first uses ice packs in there and double check to make sure that all of the products are going to arrive on time and in a good condition. Okay. Especially during spring and summer. But I personally have had issues with that as well. When I shipped some of our items that happened to be possibly meltable, they won't melt because I've been experimented with ice packs. I know how to package them. So make sure that they are sealed and they're suitable for shipping. Okay. So it must keep food from contamination, melting, damaging, or spoiling.

Okay. Now, in some cases, of course you can't control. If the box gets damaged, that's a totally different video that has to do with returns and refunds and customers and such, but specifically just ensure that you pack it the right way. Especially if you have like glass jars that have a product, if you're doing sauces, salsas or something like that, that's in a glass jar, make sure that it's not going to break. So number nine, you must ship food with enough of its shelf life, meaning you must not remove or alter the expiration date. Okay. And again, that goes back to how they work with the FBA system is I believe it's about 50 days out, or I think it's 50 days out. I have to double check on that if I'm not mistaken, but they want to make sure the customer gets it. And you're not having an expiration date within two or three days.

Okay. So it needs to be something that a customer can enjoy and eat and not have to be rushed to actually eat. So if you're shipping a jar of salsa and you know, it's going to go bad within about three or four days, that's going to be a problem for the customer. Okay. So make sure that it's shipped within enough time for them to actually enjoy it. Number 10, when you sell products in a multi-pack, this is really, really crucially important, all type packs are very unique when it comes to shipping. Okay. So when you ship a product in a multipack, the expiration date on the multi packaging must have the earliest expiration date on the product. What does that mean? All right. So you've got five different items and you put them together and you create a multi-pack the earliest product that will expire the earliest needs to be on the outside of the multi-pack.

That is because it's going to indicate to the customer that they have a certain amount of time to beat that particular product because soon it will be expiring. Does that make sense? So, you know, so you want to make sure that you've got enough time and you tell the customer that, Hey, there's five different products in here, but here's the earliest exploration, you know, make sure you consume that and get that before it expires. So make sure that you follow through with that and number 11. So you must just all the grocery and Gromit food products using the manufacturers UPC code right now, Brett, if you don't have a UPC code, you can get a bar code and Akiyama link again, down on the description. You can get your own barcode. It's not rocket science and it's not very expensive. And that would be you, you as the producer of the product, if you don't have a UPC code, make sure that you put that UPC code directly on the package and that is needed in order for you to create them. Let's think of the product. Okay. So that covers the 11 most initial aspects of product requirements. If you're looking to sell food or grocery items on Amazon, through their grocery gourmet through its category. So when you get ungated, these are the things that they're definitely going to look at and expect, right? As far as your packaging is concerned. Okay. Just have any questions about how to properly label and package food products to sell on Amazon. Let me know down below in the descriptions and I will see you guys on our next video.