Amazon Sellers’ Guide: Overcoming Pesticide Suppression – Our Bread Box Story

So, Amazon suddenly thought our bread box was a pesticide.

Yes, you heard that right. Our bread box got suppressed on Amazon.

It was like one day it was there, and the next, all we had was that sad Amazon dog staring back at us.

Here’s how it all went down and some tips to keep your products safe.

What Happened?

Our bread box listing got hit by Amazon’s pesticide policy.

We were in a back-and-forth with Amazon Support for almost 10 days through phone calls and emails. Talk about a headache.

Big Shoutout to the Community

A huge thanks is in order to the Amazon seller community.

Through our LinkedIn network, many contacts offered to help and showed us what to do.

Now I want to share with you in case it can help you too. Pay it forward, right? 

The Fix

Turns out, the fix wasn’t as complicated as we thought.

We just had to re-add our product manually through “Manage Inventory” using the UPC, then put in the same SKU.

This let us edit the listing and take out the part that caused the trouble. Boom – it was live again within minutes.

Words and Phrases to Watch Out For

Here are some words that can flag your product as a pesticide:

• All-natural
• Eco-friendly
• Earth-friendly
• Non-toxic
• Microbe or Microbial
• Anti-microbial
• Anti-bacterial
• Anti-fungal
• Insecticide
• Pesticide
• Insect
• Pest
• Non-poisonous
• Non-injurious
• Harmless
• Repellent
• Repel
• Antiseptic
• Germ
• CBD
• Compliance
• BPA Free
• Virus
• Bacteria or Bacterial
• Fungus or Fungal
• Specific insect names (e.g., Tick, Fly, Wasp, Bee, Roach, Mosquito, Beetle, Grasshopper)
• Mold
• Mildew
• Growth
• Recyclable
• Kills viruses

After fixing the listing, our previously “active” inventory was stranded and marked as “defective.”

But Amazon automatically moved it back within 36-48 hours, despite Seller Support telling us through the ticketing system that we would need to do an entire removal order. 

Wrapping Up

So, what’s the takeaway? First, the Amazon seller community is amazing—don’t be shy to ask for help.

Second, almost always you have to roll up your sleeves and fix things yourself instead of waiting on Seller Support.

Our bread box is back, and your product can be too. Just keep an eye on those tricky words, and you’ll be good!