ACCEPTABLE QUALITY LIMIT (AQL) FOR PRODUCT INSPECTIONS

Proposition 65 is the reason a warning label appears on everything from a garden hose to a handbag, and the reason a US importer can receive a legal notice about a product that has never physically been to California.

It is also the compliance regime most often discovered too late: after the goods have shipped, when a law firm sends a sixty day notice.

This guide is written for importers sourcing in Asia. It covers what the law actually requires, what has just changed, where the enforcement comes from, and where in the sourcing chain compliance is cheap to achieve rather than expensive to defend.

The deadline most importers have not planned for

Since 1 January 2025, the Prop 65 short form warning must name at least one chemical. Products manufactured and labelled from 1 January 2028 must carry the new wording to qualify for safe harbour protection. Stock manufactured and labelled with the old short form before that date can be sold indefinitely without relabelling. That makes label artwork a sourcing decision, and it makes 2026 and 2027 the years to get it right.

What Is California Prop 65? (60-Second Definition)

Proposition 65 is the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. It requires a business to give a clear and reasonable warning before knowingly and intentionally exposing anyone in California to a chemical that the state has listed as causing cancer or reproductive harm.

It is not a ban, and it is not a product safety standard. You may sell a product containing a listed chemical. You may not sell it into California without the warning, unless exposure falls below the level California considers safe.

What Prop 65 is	What Prop 65 is not
A warning law	A ban on listed chemicals
Enforced mostly by private plaintiffs, not by a regulator	Enforced by product recalls
Applies to any business with 10 or more employees selling into California	Limited to businesses located in California
Triggered by exposure above a safe harbour level	Triggered by the mere presence of a chemical, if exposure is below the safe harbour level

Why Prop 65 Applies to You (Even If You're Not in California)

Prop 65 follows the product, not the company. If your goods reach a consumer in California, the law reaches you. For anyone selling on Amazon, an e-commerce marketplace or through a US distributor, that is effectively every product line.

The chain of commerce is wide, and being at the top of it is no protection:

[CHECKLIST] - Importers can be named, because they place the product on the US market. - Private label brands can be named, because their name is on the label. - Retailers and marketplaces can be named, and they will pass the liability up the chain to you through their supplier agreements. - Your factory in Asia cannot be named, which is precisely the problem. The party with the chemistry knowledge has no legal exposure, and the party with the legal exposure has never seen the chemistry. [/CHECKLIST]

That asymmetry is the whole reason compliance has to be verified rather than assumed.

The Prop 65 Chemicals List: What It Is and How to Use It

California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) maintains the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity. The statute requires the list to be revised and republished at least once a year, and chemicals are added and occasionally removed throughout the year.

Two consequences follow, and both matter more than the length of the list.

Compliance is a state, not a certificate. A product cleared against the list two years ago is not automatically cleared today. A chemical added last December can put an unchanged product out of compliance.

A word on who does what, because it matters for Prop 65. Whether a given exposure exceeds a safe harbour level is a laboratory determination, made by a laboratory accredited to ISO 17025. It is not something an inspection establishes, and it is not something AQF claims to establish on its own. What an inspection does is upstream and downstream of the laboratory: confirming that the warning label and its artwork are present and match the client's specification, and reviewing the test report the factory provides. The chemistry belongs to the laboratory. The verification that the right label is on the right product, in the container, belongs to the inspection.

Presence is not the test. Exposure is. OEHHA sets safe harbour levels for many listed chemicals: a No Significant Risk Level for carcinogens, and a Maximum Allowable Dose Level for reproductive toxicants. Below the safe harbour level, no warning is required. Where no safe harbour level has been established, any detectable exposure becomes contestable, which is why chemicals without a safe harbour level attract disproportionate litigation.

The chemicals that generate most of the enforcement against imported consumer goods are a small subset of the list, and they are predictable:

Chemical family	Typically found in
Lead and cadmium	Metal components, jewellery, painted surfaces, ceramics, glassware decoration, PVC
Phthalates (DEHP, DINP and others)	Soft PVC, vinyl, imitation leather, cables, packaging, handles and grips
BPA and BPS	Polycarbonate, can linings, thermal paper and printed labels
Formaldehyde	Composite wood, adhesives, textile finishes
Nickel	Metal findings, fasteners, jewellery, watch backs
PFAS	Water resistant and stain resistant coatings on textiles and cookware

If your product contains any of these families, treat it as in scope until a laboratory says otherwise.

Prop 65 Warning Label Requirements: Content, Placement, Format

This is the section that changed, and the change has a deadline.

The two safe harbour warning formats

A warning that follows OEHHA's prescribed content and placement is deemed clear and reasonable, which is what safe harbour means. You may deviate, but you then have to defend the deviation.

Element	Requirement
Symbol	A black exclamation mark inside a yellow equilateral triangle with a black outline. The symbol may be printed in black and white if the label carries no other colour.
Signal word	WARNING, or since the 2025 amendments, CA WARNING or CALIFORNIA WARNING
Chemical name	The long form warning has always required at least one chemical to be named. The short form now requires it too.
Endpoint	The warning must state whether the chemical is known to cause cancer, reproductive harm, or both
Reference	The warning must direct the reader to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Legibility	Minimum 6 point type, and conspicuous relative to the other text on the label

The 2028 short form deadline

Until recently, the short form warning let a business warn without naming any chemical, which is why it became the default on imported consumer goods. That option is closing.

Date	What applies
1 January 2025	The amended rules take effect. The new short form warning may be used from this date. It must name at least one chemical for each endpoint that applies.
Now until 31 December 2027	Transition period. The old short form warning is still valid.
From 1 January 2028	A product manufactured and labelled from this date must carry the new short form wording to qualify for safe harbour.
Indefinitely	Stock manufactured and labelled with the old short form warning before 1 January 2028 may continue to be sold without relabelling.

Why this is a sourcing decision, not a marketing one

The new short form names a chemical. Naming a chemical means knowing which one is present, and at what level. That is a laboratory question, and the answer has to exist before the artwork goes to print. Importers who leave this to 2027 will be redesigning packaging under time pressure, on products already in production.

Online sales

For products sold online into California, the warning must be given before the purchase is completed, on the product display page or through a clearly marked link using the warning signal word. A warning that arrives with the delivered product is not sufficient on its own.

Product Categories Most at Risk (Furniture, Kitchenware, Cosmetics, Electronics, Toys, Apparel)

Category	The usual culprit	Where it comes from in the factory
Furniture	Formaldehyde, flame retardants, lead in coatings	Composite wood, adhesives, surface finishes
Kitchenware	Lead and cadmium, BPA, PFAS	Ceramic and glass decoration, can linings, non-stick coatings
Cosmetics and personal care	Heavy metals, titanium dioxide, phthalates in fragrance	Colourants, pigment impurities, fragrance carriers
Electronics	Lead in solder, phthalates in cables, BPA in housings	Soldering, PVC cable sheathing, mouldings
Toys	Lead, cadmium, phthalates	Paint, soft PVC, small metal parts
Apparel and accessories	Lead and cadmium in hardware, phthalates in prints and imitation leather, PFAS in coatings	Zips, studs, buckles, screen prints, water resistant finishes

The pattern to notice: in almost every category, the risk sits in a component or a surface treatment, not in the main material. That is exactly the part of the bill of materials a supplier is most likely to substitute without telling you.

How Prop 65 Testing Works: From Sample to Compliance Report

Prop 65 testing is not a single test. It is a chemical analysis targeted at the substances that could plausibly be present in your specific product, run on the specific components that a consumer could be exposed to.

Step	What happens	Why it matters
1. Scope the risk	Identify which listed chemicals could plausibly be present, based on the bill of materials and the category	Testing for everything is not possible. Testing for the wrong things is worse than not testing.
2. Break the product down	Identify each accessible component and surface a consumer could be exposed to	A compliant product with a non compliant zip is a non compliant product
3. Test a pre-production sample	An accredited laboratory analyses the components for the targeted chemicals	A failure here costs a sample. A failure after production costs the run.
4. Compare against safe harbour levels	A laboratory assesses exposure against the NSRL or MADL, where one exists. This is laboratory work, not inspection work.	Presence alone does not require a warning. Exposure above the safe harbour level does.
5. Decide: reformulate, or warn	Change the material or the supplier, or apply a compliant warning naming the chemical found	This is the decision the 2028 short form rule forces you to make consciously
6. Verify in production	An inspection at the factory confirms that the material tested is the material shipped, and that the label is the approved artwork	A test report describes a sample. An inspection tells you what is in the container.

The gap that catches importers

A laboratory certifies the sample you sent it. It says nothing about the 40,000 units the factory produced three months later, possibly with a cheaper pigment from a different supplier. The test and the inspection are two halves of the same control, and neither works alone.

Prop 65 vs Federal Regulations (CPSIA, FDA, EPA): What's Different

Prop 65 sits alongside federal rules. It does not replace them, and complying with one does not comply with the others.

	Prop 65	CPSIA	FDA
Jurisdiction	State of California	US federal	US federal
Scope	Any consumer product causing exposure to a listed chemical	Children's products, under 12 years	Food, food contact materials, cosmetics, drugs
What it requires	A warning, or exposure below the safe harbour level	Compliance with hard limits, third party testing, a Children's Product Certificate	Compliance with material and safety rules
Type of rule	Disclosure	Prohibition	Prohibition
Who enforces	Mostly private plaintiffs	The CPSC	The FDA
Consequence of failure	Civil penalties, legal fees, reformulation, relabelling	Banned hazardous substance, recall, listing suspension	Import refusal, recall

The practical trap: a children's toy can pass CPSIA lead testing and still require a Prop 65 warning. CPSIA sets a limit you must stay under. Prop 65 asks whether exposure exceeds a level California considers safe, and if it does, it requires you to say so. See our CPSIA compliance guide for how the two interact on children's products.

Prop 65 Enforcement: Lawsuits, Penalties, Bounty Hunters

Prop 65 is not enforced the way most product regulations are. There is no inspector at the port. There is a private plaintiff with a test report.

How an action starts. A private party buys your product, has it tested, and serves a sixty day notice of violation on you, on the Attorney General, and on the relevant district attorney. The notice must be accompanied by a certificate of merit supported by test data. If no public prosecutor takes up the case within sixty days, the private party may sue in the public interest, recover a share of the civil penalties, and recover their legal fees.

What it costs. Civil penalties can reach $2,500 per violation per day. The penalty is rarely the largest number on the bill: the recoverable legal fees usually are, and courts routinely order reformulation or relabelling on top.

Who can enforce	Basis
The California Attorney General	Direct
A district attorney, or a city attorney of a city over 750,000 people	Direct
Any private party acting in the public interest	Sixty day notice plus certificate of merit. This is where the great majority of actions come from.

Why settlement is the norm

Most defendants settle, and not because they are guilty. Proving that no violation occurred is expensive, and the legal fees are recoverable by the plaintiff but not by you. The economics of the statute are designed to make a warning label look cheap. They also make a laboratory report look very cheap indeed.

How to Add Prop 65 Warnings on Amazon Listings & E-Commerce

Amazon requires sellers to provide Prop 65 warning information where it applies, and provides fields in Seller Central for the warning type and the chemical name. Three points decide whether the warning actually protects you.

[CHECKLIST] - The warning must appear before purchase. A warning on the packaging alone does not cover an online sale into California. It has to be on the product display page, or reachable from it through a clearly marked warning link. - The listing warning and the label warning must agree. If the listing names lead and the box names phthalates, you have created your own evidence of inconsistency. - The chemical name has to come from somewhere. Both the listing field and the new short form label require a named chemical. That name comes out of a laboratory report, not out of a guess. [/CHECKLIST]

For how this fits into the wider set of requirements Amazon enforces at receiving, see our Amazon FBA requirements guide and our guidance on product testing for Amazon FBA. Prop 65 exposure concentrates wherever the chemistry does: see furniture safety testing for formaldehyde in composite wood and for coatings, and toy safety testing for lead, cadmium and phthalates in children's products.

AQF's Prop 65 Testing & Compliance Workflow (China Factory, Lab, Report)

Prop 65 compliance breaks at the join between the laboratory and the factory. The laboratory knows the chemistry but never sees the production line. The inspector sees the production line but does not do chemistry. AQF covers both ends of that join.

Stage	What AQF does
Scoping	Review the bill of materials and the product category to identify which listed chemicals are plausibly present and which components a consumer is exposed to
Laboratory testing	Chemical analysis through ISO 17025 accredited partner laboratories, on the components identified rather than on the product as a whole
Reporting	A report showing what was found, in which component, and how it compares to the applicable safe harbour level
Verification in production	An on-site inspection at the factory in Asia, confirming that the material in the container matches the material that was tested, and that the label carries the approved warning artwork

Our lab testing and compliance services cover the analysis. The inspection is what connects the report to the shipment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Prop 65?

Proposition 65 is a California law, formally the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986. It requires businesses to give a clear and reasonable warning before knowingly and intentionally exposing anyone in California to a chemical that the state has listed as causing cancer or reproductive harm. It is a warning law rather than a ban: you may sell a product containing a listed chemical, but not without a warning, unless the exposure falls below the safe harbour level California has set for that chemical.

Does Prop 65 apply to me if I am not based in California?

Yes. Prop 65 follows the product, not the company. Any business with 10 or more employees that sells a product reaching a consumer in California is within scope, wherever that business is located. For anyone selling on Amazon or through a US distributor, that means effectively every product line. Importers, private label brands and retailers can all be named in an enforcement action.

What products need a Prop 65 warning?

Any product that exposes a person in California to a listed chemical above the safe harbour level. Presence alone is not the test: exposure is. OEHHA sets a No Significant Risk Level for carcinogens and a Maximum Allowable Dose Level for reproductive toxicants, and no warning is required below those levels. Where no safe harbour level has been set for a chemical, any detectable exposure can be challenged, which is why those chemicals attract a disproportionate share of litigation.

What does a Prop 65 warning label have to say?

A safe harbour warning carries a black exclamation mark in a yellow equilateral triangle, the signal word WARNING (or, since 2025, CA WARNING or CALIFORNIA WARNING), the name of at least one listed chemical, a statement of whether that chemical is known to cause cancer or reproductive harm, and a reference to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov. It must be in at least 6 point type and conspicuous compared with the other text on the label.

What is changing about the Prop 65 short form warning in 2028?

The short form warning used to allow a business to warn without naming any chemical, which made it the default on imported consumer goods. Under amendments effective 1 January 2025, the short form warning must now name at least one chemical for each applicable endpoint. There is a transition period: a product manufactured and labelled from 1 January 2028 must carry the new wording to qualify for safe harbour protection, while stock manufactured and labelled with the old short form warning before that date may continue to be sold indefinitely without relabelling. In practice this means importers need to know which chemical is present in their product, which is a laboratory question, before the new artwork can be printed.

What are the penalties for Prop 65 non-compliance?

Civil penalties can reach $2,500 per violation per day. In practice the penalty is often not the largest cost: a successful private plaintiff can also recover their legal fees, and courts routinely order reformulation or relabelling as well. Because proving that no violation occurred is expensive and your own legal costs are not recoverable, the great majority of Prop 65 actions settle.

Who enforces Prop 65?

The California Attorney General, a district attorney, or the city attorney of a city with more than 750,000 people can bring an action. So can any private party acting in the public interest, and that is where the great majority of enforcement comes from. A private party must first serve a sixty day notice of violation supported by a certificate of merit backed by test data. If no public prosecutor takes up the case within sixty days, the private party may sue and recover a share of the penalties along with their legal fees.

Can I test my product for Prop 65 at the factory in Asia?

Yes. Prop 65 testing is chemical analysis carried out by a laboratory accredited to ISO 17025, the international standard for testing and calibration laboratories, and it should be done on a pre-production sample rather than on finished goods, because a failure after mass production means the run is scrap. Testing at source also allows the result to be verified against what is actually shipped: an inspection at the factory confirms that the material in the container is the material that was tested, and that the label carries the approved warning artwork.

How much does Prop 65 testing cost?

The cost depends on the scope rather than on a list price. What drives it is the number of listed chemicals your product plausibly contains, the number of separate components and surfaces that have to be analysed individually, and whether an exposure assessment against the safe harbour level is needed as well as a raw chemical result. A single component tested for one chemical family is a small job. A multi material product with painted parts, metal fittings and a printed label is not. Ask for a quote based on your bill of materials.

How is Prop 65 different from CPSIA or FDA regulations?

Prop 65 is a California state law that requires a warning. CPSIA is a US federal law that sets hard limits for children's products, including lead and phthalate limits, and requires third party testing and a Children's Product Certificate. FDA rules are federal and cover food, food contact materials, cosmetics and drugs. The important practical point is that they do not substitute for each other: a children's product can pass CPSIA lead testing and still require a Prop 65 warning, because CPSIA sets a limit you must stay under while Prop 65 asks whether exposure exceeds the level California considers safe.