Don't store vitamins in the bathroom

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., March 3 (UPI) -- A U.S. food scientist warns humidity -- storing vitamins in the bathroom or kitchen -- may eliminate the benefits of some vitamins.

Lisa Mauer of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., says subjecting some vitamins to humidity can chemically change their composition -- even if the lids are on tight.

"Opening and closing a package will change the atmosphere in it," Mauer says in statement. "If you open and close a package in a bathroom, you add a little bit of humidity and moisture each time."

Mauer said crystalline substances -- including vitamin C, some forms of vitamin B and other dietary supplements -- may undergo deliquescence, a process in which humidity causes the water-soluble solid to dissolve similar to how sugar cakes in the summer.

Once humidity or temperature is brought back down, the product will solidify, Mauer says, but the damage has been done. Depending on how long a person takes for a shower, the humidity of the bathroom can go as high as 98 percent, Mauer says.

Mauer's findings were published in the early online version of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.