Kitchens, Bathrooms No Place for Vitamins

March 4, 2010 -- The kitchen or bathroom may be the worst place in the house
to store your vitamins.
A new study shows high humidity and temperatures, such as those found in the
bathroom and kitchen, can quickly degrade the potency of vitamin C and shorten
the shelf life of vitamin supplements -- even if the bottle cap is on
tightly.
Researchers found the most common types of vitamin C used in vitamin
supplements and other fortified products are prone to a process called
deliquescence, in which humidity causes a water-soluble substance to
dissolve.
"Opening and closing a package will change the atmosphere in it. If you open
and close a package in a bathroom, you add a little bit of humidity and
moisture each time," researcher Lisa Mauer, associate professor of food science
at Purdue University, says in a news release. "The humidity in your kitchen or
bathroom can cycle up quite high, depending on how long of a shower you take,
for example, and can get higher than 98%."
"If you get some moisture present or ingredients dissolve, they'll decrease
the quality and shelf life of the product and decrease the nutrient delivery,"
Mauer says. "Within a very short time -- in a week -- you can get complete loss
of vitamin C in some products that have deliquesced."





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