Can I eat this: multivitamin edition?

August 11, 2024 6:07 PM

I noticed that the multivitamins I decanted last week have now gotten rusty orange spots. Can I still take them? Pics inside

See pics here

- I bought the bottle within the last month and this is the first time I’ve had (or noticed) this discoloration

- the pills on the bottom of the comparison pics are what they look like straight out of the (opened) original bottle. No orange, and more of a tan hue.

- the pills on the top are what they look like after being decanted into my personal weekly pill storage (pink capsule container). I would hazard that they were decanted about one week ago. Orange rusty spots and more yellow overall.

- The daily capsule containers I decant them into are clearly not totally airtight, but they do snap shut and are not exactly exposed to the elements. I always keep the whole rig in a cool dry place in a wardrobe.

- the other pills they get decanted with are: - iron, melatonin, lithium orotate, lamictal, and minoxidil

So. Can I eat (swallow) it? Or is this above all our pay grades and I need a pharmacist irl to tell me? Or just get a refund / new one and start over?

posted by seemoorglass to Health & Fitness (8 answers total)

I wouldn’t. I also would never get that brand again. That looks like either some sort of chemical reaction or mold. Neither one is good.
posted by slkinsey at 6:40 PM on August 11

So, are those actually multivitamins, or are they (notoriously unregulated) 'nutritional supplements'? Because I've got a year's supply of multivitamins here that I've been working my way through for two years now and whatever's happening to yours isn't happening to mine.

I don't know what's going on there but that would be a hard no from me.
posted by mhoye at 7:00 PM on August 11

I would maybe take one apart and investigate in detail.

But from this vantage point it looks like something in the formula is hydrophilic and it has pulled some water in from the atmosphere. Has it perhaps been a bit humid where you live this week? It might not even take very much humidity to cause such a thing, depending on ingredients.

The pills in the bottle didn't get the same issue because #1. The bottle is actually sealed airtight, not just sorta tight, and (more important) #2. the bottle includes a desiccant which is designed to combat exactly this kind of problem.

I believe the gelatin type capsules are pretty permeable to water & humidity - and it looks like there is some actual research to back this up (believe it or not).

Another possibility is, perhaps they were exposed to more heat than you thought at some point.

Pure Encapsulations is supposed to be a pretty good brand - you could probably reach out to them and see what they think.

But my guess is, if you continue to dole them out into the pill boxes, the pills you put into your daily pill minders will continue to get this discoloration, at least sometimes, whereas the ones that remain in the large container won't - the difference being the reasons I outlined above.

Personally I would have taken the pills you show without even thinking twice about it, so I might not be your best guide on what to do with them.
posted by flug at 7:09 PM on August 11

note the "product may have mottled appearance" on the label.

They still look nasty-ass, and I wouldn't eat them.
posted by scruss at 7:30 PM on August 11

I take a different multi, and I split the tablets into pieces to lower the dose and keep them in a pill box. Sometimes I have seen what I think is the same phenomenon but a less marked version - dark spots present in the tablets when I split them that darken or increase in size when exposed to atmospheric moisture. I have assumed that it is the iron rusting a little bit and haven't worried about it too much, but as I said, my version of it has been less marked.
posted by jocelmeow at 10:34 AM on August 12

Poster presentation from a company that makes tablet coatings [PDF, sorry]:

"Multivitamin tablets containing iron salts are often formulated with ascorbic acid to improve the absorption of iron. However, formulations containing iron salts with ascorbic acid can form unsightly black spots (considered harmless) in the presence of moisture."
posted by jocelmeow at 10:46 AM on August 12

I get a similar look to one brand of B vitamins I take and it's entirely driven by how humid it's been. The ones that have been decanted into a pill organizer get that mottled look and then they swell up in the summer when it's particularly sticky. I have a varying level of commitment to taking them as time goes on. Myself, I would toss the ones that looks especially bad but take the ones that don't look terrible.
posted by machine at 11:16 AM on August 12

Thanks all! I skipped last nights dose but will take them from now on. My hygrometer read 65% inside today ughhhh and even my tea bags this morning (in the wax bag, in a ceramic container) had similar bleed spots on the tea bags. Makes perfect sense that it’s moisture
posted by seemoorglass at 3:50 PM on August 12