Selling a 25(b) Minimum-Risk Pesticide on Amazon: Ingredients, Label and Claims
What a FIFRA 25(b) exemption actually requires: Table 1 actives with percentages, Table 2 inerts, producer details, no public-health claims, state registration.
The 25(b) exemption is the most misunderstood regulation in Amazon's household and garden chemicals category. Sellers hear "exempt from EPA registration" and read it as "unregulated". It is the opposite: the exemption is a narrow set of conditions, every one of which must hold, and the moment one fails the product is an unregistered pesticide being sold in interstate commerce. Essential-oil bug sprays, cedar closet sprays, peppermint rodent repellents and garden fungus controls are the products most often listed under 25(b), and they are also the products most often listed wrong.
This post walks through the five conditions in 40 CFR 152.25(f), the ingredient mistakes that void the exemption, the claims language that voids it, and the state and Amazon requirements that still apply after the federal one falls away.
Condition one: every active ingredient is on Table 1
Table 1 of 40 CFR 152.25(f)(1) is a closed list. As published it contains 45 entries, mostly food-grade oils, spices and minerals: castor oil, cedarwood oil (China, Texas or Virginia), chitosan, cinnamon and cinnamon oil, citric acid, citronella and citronella oil, cloves and clove oil, corn gluten meal, corn oil, cornmint and cornmint oil, cottonseed oil, dried blood, eugenol, garlic and garlic oil, geraniol, geranium oil, lauryl sulfate, lemongrass oil, linseed oil, malic acid, peppermint and peppermint oil, 2-phenylethyl propionate, potassium sorbate, putrescent whole egg solids, rosemary and rosemary oil, sesame and sesame oil, sodium chloride, sodium lauryl sulfate, soybean oil, spearmint and spearmint oil, thyme and thyme oil, white pepper and zinc.
Everything else is out. The actives that sellers most often believe are permitted and are not: tea tree oil, neem oil, eucalyptus oil, lavender oil, pyrethrins, permethrin and DEET. A "natural bug spray" built on tea tree and neem is not a minimum-risk pesticide. It is a pesticide that needs registration, and labelling it "25(b) exempt" does not change that. EPA's minimum-risk pesticides page is the agency's own statement of the list.
Condition two: every inert is permitted
Inert ingredients have their own closed list, Table 2 of 40 CFR 152.25(f)(2), plus three categories carried over from 40 CFR 180.950: commonly consumed food commodities, animal feed items, and edible fats and oils. Table 2 is long and includes water, isopropyl alcohol, glycerin, mineral oil, soap, vinegar, lecithins, gums, citric acid, clays, waxes and simple salts.
What it does not include is most of what a contract formulator reaches for by default: synthetic surfactants such as polysorbates and sodium laureth sulfate, propylene glycol, ethanol, fragrances and preservatives. A cedarwood spray with polysorbate 20 as the emulsifier has an inert outside the list and is not exempt. The formulator may not know this, because they are thinking about stability rather than FIFRA, so check the full ingredient statement yourself against the tables before you write "minimum risk" anywhere.
Condition three: the label lists actives by name and percentage
A 25(b) label must name each active ingredient and give its percentage by weight. "Active ingredients: cedarwood oil 5%, peppermint oil 2%" meets the condition. "Active ingredients: cedarwood oil, lemongrass oil" does not, because the percentages are missing. "Made with peppermint and clove" does not, because it is not an ingredient statement at all.
The same statement should appear on the Amazon detail page. Amazon's reviewers and automated checks read the listing text and the label image, and a 25(b) positioning with no percentages anywhere is a finding in its own right. Use the Table 1 names as written; "cedar oil" is a common shorthand but "cedarwood oil" is the listed term.
Condition four: inerts by name, and the producer's name and address
Each inert ingredient must be listed by name. "Other ingredients: proprietary blend" fails. "Inert ingredients: water, isopropyl alcohol, glycerin" passes. The label must also carry the name and address of the producer. On a small bottle this gets squeezed, but it is a condition of the exemption, not a courtesy.
There is no federal requirement to print "not registered by EPA" or similar on a minimum-risk product. Several states do require their own 25(b) statement, so check the states you ship to.
Condition five: no public-health claims
This is the condition that catches the most otherwise-compliant products. 40 CFR 152.25(f)(3) forbids a minimum-risk product from making any claim to control microorganisms that pose a threat to human health, or to control vectors of disease. Pest-control claims that stay away from disease and microorganisms are fine; the moment the copy mentions either, the exemption is gone.
The line is sharper than it looks:
| Permitted (pest only) | Voids the exemption (public health) |
|---|---|
| Repels mosquitoes | Repels mosquitoes that carry West Nile and Zika |
| Controls ticks | Controls ticks that carry Lyme disease |
| Kills ants and roaches on contact | Kills germs and bacteria |
| Deodorizes and freshens | Sanitizes, disinfects, antibacterial |
| Deters mice from the garage | Prevents the spread of illness |
Every word in the right-hand column is on the list our rules scan for on products positioned as 25(b): germs, bacteria, virus, disinfect, sanitize, antibacterial, antiviral, antimicrobial, kills 99%, pathogen, E. coli, salmonella, staph, MRSA, COVID, influenza, norovirus, Lyme, West Nile, Zika, malaria, dengue, disease and illness. A single occurrence in a backend search term is enough. If a product genuinely controls disease vectors and you want to say so, it needs a registration, and the claim then has to be on the accepted label; our guide to pesticidal claims and EPA registration numbers covers what that involves.
Note also that "safe", "non-toxic" and "harmless" are treated as false or misleading on any pesticide label under 40 CFR 156.10(a)(5)(ix), and that includes 25(b) products. Minimum risk is a regulatory category, not a marketing claim, and "non-toxic natural bug spray" combines two problems in four words.
What the federal exemption does not remove
The exemption only removes the EPA registration requirement. Three other obligations stay:
- State registration. FIFRA section 24 leaves states to register pesticide products before sale into the state, and most states register 25(b) products too, renewed annually or in some states biennially. A seller shipping to all 50 states needs 50 registrations or a distributor that holds them.
- Amazon's Pesticide Marking attribute. A 25(b) product is still a pesticide listing on Amazon, so the attribute is mandatory, with registration status set to
fifra_registration_exempt. Setting it requires completing Amazon's pesticides e-learning and accepting the selling conditions, per the pesticides policy. There is no separate value for 25(b) versus treated articles; both are "exempt". - Green-claims rules. "Natural", "plant-based", "eco-friendly" and "biodegradable" on a 25(b) product are judged under the FTC Green Guides like any other product. Our post on non-toxic and biodegradable claims on cleaning products covers what substantiates them.
An imported 25(b) product also needs a FIFRA section 17 Notice of Arrival (EPA Form 3540-1) for every shipment, filed before the goods arrive.
A written 25(b) determination
Because the exemption is a set of facts rather than a certificate, the document that protects you is a written compliance memo. It is what a reviewer, a state regulator or Amazon's seller support will ask for, and writing it forces the check. One page per product:
- Each active ingredient against Table 1, with its percentage by weight.
- Each inert against Table 2 or the 40 CFR 180.950(a) to (c) categories.
- Confirmation that the label carries the actives with percentages, the inerts by name, and the producer name and address.
- Confirmation that no public-health claim appears anywhere in the label or the listing.
- The list of states where the product is registered, with renewal dates.
A fictitious example makes the gaps obvious. Greenhollow Botanicals sells a "Cedar Shield" closet spray: cedarwood oil 4%, clove oil 1%, inerts water and isopropyl alcohol, producer named, no disease language, registered in the 12 states it ships to. That passes. Its sister product, "Cedar Shield Plus", adds lavender oil for scent and a bullet reading "kills moth larvae and the bacteria that cause musty odor". It fails twice, once on the active and once on the claim, and it is the kind of listing that gets removed while the compliant sibling stays up.
Checking this across a catalogue
The five conditions are easy to state and tedious to verify, because the evidence is spread across the ingredient statement, the label image, the bullets, the backend terms and a per-state registration file. For the household and garden chemicals category, Verid8 checks each 25(b)-positioned listing against the Table 1 and Table 2 lists, flags missing percentages and public-health language with the exact text, and tracks the state registration renewals as recurring obligations, so the memo above stays true after the copy is edited.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a pesticide exempt under FIFRA 25(b)?
Every active ingredient must be on Table 1 of 40 CFR 152.25(f), every inert must be on Table 2 or be a commonly consumed food commodity, animal feed item or edible fat or oil under 40 CFR 180.950, the label must list each active by name and percentage by weight, each inert by name and the producer's name and address, and the product may not make any public-health claim.
Is tea tree oil allowed in a minimum-risk pesticide?
No. Tea tree, neem, eucalyptus and lavender oils are not on Table 1, so a product using any of them as an active ingredient is not exempt and needs EPA registration before sale. The permitted list includes cedarwood, peppermint, lemongrass, clove, rosemary, thyme, garlic and cinnamon oils, among others.
Can a 25(b) product say it repels ticks that carry Lyme disease?
It can say it repels ticks. It cannot mention Lyme disease, because controlling a vector of disease is a public-health claim, and 40 CFR 152.25(f) forbids public-health claims on minimum-risk products. A single such claim voids the exemption.
Does a 25(b) product need state registration?
Usually yes. The federal exemption only removes the EPA registration requirement. Most states register minimum-risk products before sale into the state, and renew annually, so a seller shipping nationally needs registrations in the states it ships to or a distributor that holds them.
This article is general information for Amazon sellers, not legal advice. Regulations and Amazon policy change; verify requirements against the primary sources cited, and consult a qualified attorney about your specific situation.