Amazon Dietary Supplement Requirements Are Changing for the Better

Amazon is taking action to require third-party testing for sellers of dietary supplements.

Image of a hand with a palm open and several different supplement pills in it.
The new Amazon dietary supplement requirements will hopefully eliminate the possibility of you getting duped with a supplement devoid of nutrients.Credit: Unsplash Curated Lifestyle

Amazon has announced the rollout of new certification requirements for all dietary supplement sellers on the platform1. As of this January, Amazon supplement requirements call for sellers to use a third-party testing, inspection, and certification organization to demonstrate Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) compliance. 

This new requirement concerns vitamins, minerals, botanicals, amino acids, and certain herbs. It notably does not cover any supplement not designed to be orally ingested, such as topical solutions, creams, and ointments.

Communicating Amazon’s New Requirements

Amazon plans to reach out directly to companies concerned by this new requirement to inform them that they have 90 days to initiate a documentation request with a certifier for third-party supplement testing. As of January 2026, Amazon has listed seven approved third-party companies for dietary supplement testing in the U.S.

The new Amazon dietary supplement requirements only serve to fortify pre-existing testing requirements for several supplement categories NeutraIngredients characterizes as “problematic,” including sexual enhancement, weight management, and joint health products2

These products include any item containing glucosamine methylsulfonylmethane or chondroitin, both of which have been widely attributed with joint health benefits. Makers of these supplements must demonstrate that they are in compliance with standards showing that the supplement “contains the ingredients claimed on the label” and that “it does not contain specific undeclared contaminants.”

Years of Misleading Marketing

Image of a Samsung phone face up on a wooden table featuring the Amazon logo.
Amazon’s marketplace may make it easier for people to get supplements, but they’re not necessarily as good for you as they advertise. – Credit: Unsplash Christian Wiediger

This new certification is a long time in coming, after years of sellers using the platform to market supplements in ways the media has characterized as “misleading3” and even “worthless4.” In 2025, a class action lawsuit was brought against the marketplace alleging that Amazon sold dietary supplements with misleading health claims that had not been approved by the FDA5.

In the same year as the Amazon class action lawsuit, a company called SuppCo carried out independent lab analyses on 44 of the site’s most popular supplements for testing. They found that 50% of the products “failed to meet their label claims,” and 20 of the 22 failures contained only 0 to 3% of the main ingredient amount claimed. 

Failures were particularly flagrant within the category of gummy vitamins, where a whopping 75% failed tests. Cheaper alternatives also tested especially poorly, with failing products proving to be an average of 38% cheaper than those that passed tests. Foreign imports were also particularly problematic: Every overseas-registered supplement tested by the group failed testing.

Sources:

  1. https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external/201829010
  2. https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2025/12/22/amazon-expands-tic-cgmp-requirement-to-all-supplement-products/
  3. https://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/amazon-superdrug-advertising-standards-authority-holland-department-of-health-and-social-care-b1267580.html
  4. https://seattlered.com/seattle-red/jason-rantz-opinion/amazon-supplements-suppco/4115334 
  5. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news/amazon-must-face-class-action-over-non-fda-approved-supplements/
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Emily Monaco is a food and culture writer based in Paris. Her work has been featured in the Wall ... More about Emily Monaco
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