Amazon adds joint health to dietary supplement testing requirements

Joint health supplements join weight management, sexual enhancement and sports nutrition/bodybuilding on the list of products that are required to demonstrate third-party verification via NSF International, Eurofins, or UL. Testing data and certificates of analyses are sent directly from the lab to Amazon.

According to an announcement from the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), products currently available on Amazon have 90 days to implement this verification process.

AHPA noted that additional information from Amazon details that it deems the following products within scope for joint health:

• Any products that make claims regarding joint health, flexibility or mobility.

• Any products that contain any amount of glucosamine, methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) and/or chondroitin as an ingredient.

“As Amazon continues to expand its dietary supplements policy, NSF is proud to offer testing in our world-class ISO17025 labs and certification to either NSF/ANSI 173, the gold standard for dietary supplements, NSF/ANSI 229 or NSF 306 for joint health products. Both testing and certification meet Amazon’s policy requirements,” David Trosin, Senior Director, Nutrition and Wellness at NSF, told NutraIngredients-USA.

“By selecting NSF as your testing partner through the Amazon Seller Central page, sellers can take advantage of NSF’s cutting-edge Seller Portal, an AI-powered proprietary system that streamlines testing and certification, provides on-demand quotes for testing costs, and offers a dashboard to track the product testing journey.”

TICs

Amazon announced sweeping new specifications for dietary supplements in December 2020. NutraIngredients-USA was the first industry publication to report the specifications.

The tech giant announced its TIC program in April 2024, hosting a webinar on April 17 that explained that selling partners have to verify via third-party Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) organizations on an annual basis that dietary supplement products offered meet specific criteria, including:

1. Products are made in a cGMP compliant facility.
2. Products do not contain any harmful contaminants or contaminants that may pose a regulatory concern.
3. Products contain the ingredients listed on the label.
4. Products do not contain any undeclared APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients).
5. Products clearly show facts panel, ingredient list, identity statement, appropriate FDA disclaimers and relevant product warnings. The policy also states that products must not make illegal or disease claims.

Definitions

Amazon defines sexual enhancement products as: “Supplements marketed to enhance erections, desire, sexual performance, and increasing the size of sexual organs.”

Weight management is defined as: “Supplements marketed to reduce macronutrient absorption, increase/decrease body fat or weight, and increase metabolism or thermogenesis.”

And sports nutrition/bodybuilding is defined as: “Supplements marketed to increase energy during pre-workout, post-workout, muscle building, body building and athletics for the purpose of facilitating an increase in lead body mass, weight lifting, weight training, increase in muscle mass through enhanced muscle repair, recovery and growth, etc.”