CBD is a natural compound that you can’t taste, and when it’s in your body, it isn’t really something that you can feel working. When you buy CBD oil from a company like VSAVI, then, it’s incredibly important that you store it correctly, because if you don’t store CBD oil properly, there’s no obvious way to know whether the CBD content has degraded. If storage reduces the CBD content of the oil by a few milligrams per serving, you can’t tell that. You may notice, however, that the oil is less beneficial than it once was – and you won’t know why. Exercising a bit of care with CBD oil storage can help to ensure that won’t happen.
In most cases, you don’t need to lose sleep over how you store your CBD oil because you’re going to use it long before it has a chance to degrade. A bottle of CBD oil is typically about a one-month supply, and if you’re using your CBD oil that quickly, you really don’t need to do anything apart from storing it in a cool, dark place.
There are several reasons, though, why you might want to take extra care to ensure that your CBD oil remains stable in long-term storage. You might be using the CBD for microdosing, for example, and you’re taking just a few drops a day. Maybe your bottles of CBD oil tend to last a long time because you buy a high-strength CBD oil and don’t need to use much at a time. Maybe you simply stocked up because you found a great sale. Whatever the reason may be, you want to be certain if you’re going to store your CBD oil for a while that it’ll be just as effective when you take it out of storage and use it as it was the day you bought it.
The Enemies of CBD Oil
The primary enemies of CBD oil are light, air and heat. Light and heat excite the molecules in CBD oil, hastening the degradation of the active compounds. Air, meanwhile, causes oxidation. You can minimize the oil’s exposure to all three of those things by keeping the bottle tightly closed and storing it in a cabinet. Unless you have an extremely hot kitchen, there’s little reason to worry that your CBD oil will degrade in storage for up to about a year. Just remember that if you’re planning to store the oil for several months, you should keep the bottle tightly closed to minimize exposure to air. Don’t open the CBD oil until you’re ready to use it.
Can You Store CBD Oil in the Refrigerator?
If you can’t find a sufficiently cool cabinet in which to store a bottle of CBD oil, you can always put the bottle in your refrigerator. At refrigerator temperatures, you should have no problem getting a bottle of CBD oil to last a year or even longer. The one thing you should know about storing CBD oil in the refrigerator, though, is that the cold temperature of the fridge may make the CBD oil very thick and difficult to use. If that happens, you can warm the bottle up by running water over it in the sink for a few minutes. Once the oil gets closer to room temperature and thins out a bit, it’s ready to use.
Store CBD Oil Like Culinary Oil
Most of what’s in a bottle of CBD oil isn’t CBD – it’s oil. CBD requires a carrier oil, and for that, CBD brands use food oils such as MCT oil, coconut oil, hempseed oil and olive oil. When you put a bottle of CBD oil into long-term storage, then, your primary concern might not actually be the state of the CBD – the bigger concern is that the oil could go rancid in storage. Rancidity, after all, is always a concern with unsaturated fats. Fortunately, the best ways to preserve culinary oil are essentially the same as the ways to store CBD oil. If you store your CBD oil as if it were a top-quality food oil, you can’t go wrong.
- Light breaks down oil, so it’s always wise to store cooking oil in a dark place. That’s why cooking oil almost always comes in tinted bottles.
- As we’ve mentioned, heat increases the movement rate of the molecules in oil, speeding the chemical processes that result in the oil’s eventual breakdown. That’s why it’s important to avoid storing culinary oil too close to a stove or microwave.
- Experts also suggest that it’s wise to avoid shaking bottles of cooking oil. Shaking a bottle of oil increases its exposure to oxygen, hastening the process of oxidation. That’s also true of CBD oil. Shaking and opening a bottle of CBD oil will make it break down more quickly. That’s not a problem if you’re using the CBD oil each day, because the oil will run out before the air exposure becomes a concern. It’s wise, though, to keep a bottle of CBD oil closed and avoid shaking it if you’re going to store it for a while.
What If You Need to Store CBD Oil for the Apocalypse?
If you need to store CBD oil for an extremely long time – perhaps because you’ve just acquired an extremely large quantity of CBD oil that you can’t use within a year – you can store it in your freezer. If you’re going to freeze CBD oil, your best bet is to put the bottle in a vacuum bag and suck out the air before placing the bag in your freezer.
If you freeze CBD oil, know that some carrier oils will freeze solid. Most freezers, for example, are cold enough to freeze olive oil. When you remove a bottle of CBD oil from the freezer, the oil might be completely solid, and the glass may be brittle. Don’t attempt to open the bottle while it’s still cold, because you’ll risk cracking the bottle or the eyedropper. Before you open the bottle, allow plenty of time for the oil to come up to room temperature.
