Vitamins and health supplements could go off in a week when kept in kitchens and bathroom cupboards
Efforts to improve your health by stocking up on vitamins and health supplements could be for nothing if you store them in kitchen and bathroom cupboards.
According to the research, exposing products like vitamin C to humidity can chemically change their compositions and destroy any health benefits within a week - even if they are stored in pots with their lids tightly on.
Lisa Mauer, an associate professor of food science, said: ‘Opening and closing a package in a bathroom will change the atmosphere in it. It allows moisture in and destroys the product.
‘Within a very short time - a week - you can get complete loss of vitamin C. It depends on the conditions. It depends on the formulations.'
These latest findings could cause serious problems for the health supplement industry, which makes around £600million a year in Britain.
Researchers insist that supplements do not become harmful when exposed to humidity, they just become ineffective.
The Health Supplements Information Service denied these claims, saying: ‘So long as they are stored in ordinary shelves in bathroom there shouldn't be a problem.'
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