Storing raw materials and finished stock

Everything in this category is hygroscopic, and a storeroom is simply a large volume of air in contact with your inventory.

Two different storage problems

Raw materials, where the risk is moisture uptake and potency loss before the material is even used. And finished stock, where the risk is the same plus a declared shelf life already running.

Raw materials

Sealed, cool and dark, in the original container where possible, and closed between every use. An open sack in a workshop is a device for exchanging moisture with the room.

Actives and anything with fat in it have the shortest lives. Whey and animal-based proteins degrade faster than plant-based ones because of their higher fat content, and that fat oxidizes to rancidity over time. Buy those in quantities you will use rather than at the best price break.

Record the lot and the date received on the container itself, not only in a system, because the container is what somebody is holding when the question arises.

Finished stock

An unopened, well-sealed powder typically holds one to two years, because the low moisture content means microorganisms cannot live in it. That protection depends entirely on the seal.

So finished stock stored in a warm damp room is finished stock whose declared shelf life is optimistic. Store it as you tell the customer to store it, which is a standard surprisingly few brands meet.

A rotation you will keep

Date everything on the outer. Oldest forward, and lay the store out so the oldest is the easiest to reach rather than the hardest, because a rotation that requires effort is a rotation that stops.

Keep a reserve sample of every batch as the rule expects, sealed and labeled with the batch code, and hold it for at least the declared shelf life.

References