How to make the most of your high-quality products
As a Metabolic Maintenance customer, you have purchased a high-quality supplement. To maintain the quality and efficacy of your supplement, we’d love to offer some supplement storage ideas.
We take care in crafting high potency vitamins with premium ingredients and no added excipients. The environment where we make and store our supplements provides an ideal temperature and humidity for nutrients and the seal in the unopened bottle protects them from exposures as well.
This article is to provide information on caring for your supplements once they are ordered, the seal is broken, and the product is used. A few considerations in storage will maintain the high quality of your purchase over time.
Where is the ideal place to store supplements?
While your supplement is made to be effective throughout its shelf life, similarly to food, nutrient degradation takes place over time. Certain factors in the environment can accelerate this degradation. The ideal place to store supplements provides optimal storage conditions while aiding in ease of access. A product does you no good if it is stored in the optimal environment and forgotten. Your ideal spot will likely balance these factors.
Our bottles state: Store tightly closed, in a cool dry place. Let’s discuss what that means in more detail.
What factors are harmful to supplements?
Supplements, once opened, are more vulnerable to the environment. Heat, water, air, and sunlight are all factors that can speed the degradation of vitamins and probiotics. Our supplement storage ideas take all of these factors into account.
Heat
Store in a cool place with stable temperature—the ideal temperature range for supplements is around 65-77 degrees Fahrenheit. Cooler temperature is less of a problem than excessive heat which can speed degradation. Fluctuations in temperature from cold to hot can create condensation which can accelerate nutrient breakdown (see Water below).
If you live in an area where summer heat often gets above 90 degrees, consider our express delivery option. If you are not available to collect your supplements upon delivery, plan to order an extra bottle in the spring or a bottle with a higher capsule count and spare your supplement an arrival on the hottest summer day. But also note a one-time exposure to heat is less likely to create a problem than added effects of an unfriendly environment over time.
Water
Most supplements are exposed to water via humid air. This could be due to a humid climate— such as those in the southeast, and coastal areas. An indoor environment that is humid on a regular basis is another problem. Your bathroom is not the ideal place to store your vitamins as humidity from showers can take a toll over time. The kitchen, especially near the stove where steam is a factor may also be less than ideal. And though the refrigerator may be nice and cold, it is quite high in humidity. The ideal relative humidity for supplements is below 65 percent. Pick a place in your house that is drier like the bedroom or pantry and keep the desiccant packages in the bottles—they will help to deal with humidity exposures.
Signs that your supplement has absorbed moisture can include clumping or dark spots. These changes are an indication you will want to assess your storage spot.
Air
Keeping your supplements in the bottle and the lid tightly sealed is optimal for reduced exposure to air. Pill reminder containers are helpful but expose your supplements to more air—use them for as short a time as possible if needed.
Sunlight
Certain vitamins are degraded by light. Our amber glass bottles make this less of a problem by shielding your supplements. Still, a sunny windowsill would be less ideal for your chosen spot than a cool, dark cupboard.
Specific Supplement Storage Ideas
Taking all of the above factors into account, a kitchen cabinet (away from potentially steamy stove or sink) with a closing door might be the most ideal. We like to keep our supplements next to the mugs so they are the first thing we see when we reach for that morning Joe, and the last thing we see when making tea before bed. Think about when you want a reminder to take your supplements when you decide on a storage spot.
If you don’t have ample or closed kitchen storage, perhaps you have a linen cupboard away from the steam of a bath or shower that you open frequently. A drawer in your dresser or desk can also be a great dark, dry place that you will open often for that reminder to supplement.
Some supplements have a subtle scent, so you may not want them to share a drawer with your clothes. If you’d like to contain the scent of your supplements, a clear airtight container in any of the above suggested locations can aid in that issue.