How to remove tomato sauce stains

Is there anything worse than staining your clothes while eating pasta or pizza? A classic mistake, perhaps inseparable from the pleasure of a tasty meal. Shirts, blouses, t-shirts, skirts and even pants on which the pleasure of juicy tomato sauce leaves an indelible scar.

But if you don’t want to sacrifice an item of clothing every time you taste sauced noodles and keep wearing it one more time, there are a few things you need to do.

The most important thing: act on time! In addition to having the necessary cleaning supplies, it is crucial to remove the stain as quickly as possible to prevent it from hardening. The fact is that tomato sauce contains tannins, a natural component that gives color to vegetables, in addition to oil or meat stains.

Although the stain may look scandalous, even a little bloody, removing it is much easier than you think. The best thing is that you can do it using products that you normally have at home. Although there are different ways to achieve a successful result, there are three basic steps that you should always keep in mind before applying any product.

The sooner you act on the tomato sauce stain, the more likely you are to remove it. As soon as you see it, you should try to remove it: this way the sauce will have as little time as possible in contact with the textile, and therefore the better your luck will be.

Use a spoon or bread knife to remove excess sauce. The most important thing here is to remove and not spread or enlarge the stain. Between the two tools, I personally consider that the spoon is the best that we can use to remove this excess, because the movement that we make, precisely “spooning”, allows it to be removed more easily.

Turn the garment or fabric over to the wrong side of the stain and run cold water from the hose over it. This helps prevent the sauce from penetrating deep into the fibers of the fabric. It’s as if you are helping the stain to come out of the textile with this little current.

Sometimes, if the stain wasn’t very big or you acted in time, you might be lucky enough to follow just these three steps. Here it depends on the textile or the sauce ingredients themselves. As we have already told you, there are different ways to remove the stain and here we present three alternatives: A, B and C.

This could also be called the old reliable trick . After rinsing the stain from the back, you should apply a few touches of liquid detergent and a broom in circular motions.

Leave for at least ten minutes and rinse well. Then, on the stained area, squeeze half of a lemon, as this fruit has astringent properties.

The final step in this process is to apply a stain remover, such as Vanish or Dr. Beckmann’s Stain Remover, to the stained area and let it sit for fifteen minutes. Then wash the garment as usual and you will see when you take the garment out to hang it that the stains will be gone.

We tried it and after enjoying spaghetti bolognese, the stains on t-shirts and towels disappeared. On the site Spruce They mention that if the tomato stain came from a dish or source containing oil, common dishwashers contain a degreaser that will help remove the oily component.

The TikTok account Sheet Laundry Club He has a method that made me curious when I saw the video. Instead of applying dabs of liquid detergent, they suggest using one-eighth of sheet detergent. The goal is to dissolve the film with a little water and then brush the affected area with a toothbrush.

The next step may seem strange: you need to apply ice to the affected area. The idea is for the stain to be soaked in this cold ice water.

The astringent agent in this method is distilled white vinegar. Using a towel, lightly dab the stain. The idea is to remove any excess that remains.

Wash as usual, in cold water, and you will see that the stain has indeed disappeared.

-This is the simplest – and probably the most used – way to remove stains. The idea here is to apply step 3 (soak the stain on the back), then brush with a little stain remover. Generate a lather and let it sit for at least 15 minutes, before washing it with the rest of the clothes.

We tested this method using two different products on the same cloth: Dr Beckmann stain remover and the classic Vanish. Although both products work, it is the latter that works more quickly, removing the stain before going into the wash. The other stain arrived with some dye, but when it came out of the washing machine it was completely removed.

*Product prices in this article are current as of January 10, 2023. Values ​​and availability are subject to change.