How to get soy sauce out of clothes, fresh or dried

Step by step: how to get soy sauce out of clothes, fresh or dried

Safety first. Never mix chlorine bleach with vinegar, ammonia or other cleaners, and wear gloves when you handle a bleach soak. Rinse each product out before you try the next one.

1. 1

   Blot off the excess

   Press a paper towel or white cloth onto the spill to soak up as much soy sauce as you can. Blot, do not rub, because rubbing pushes the dark liquid deeper and spreads the ring. If you are at a restaurant, a dry napkin is better than a wet one.

2. 2

   Flush the stain from the back with cool water

   Turn the garment inside out and run cool water through the back of the stain for about a minute. Flushing from the back pushes the sauce out the way it came in. Avoid hot water at this stage, which can set the color.

3. 3

   Work in a little dish soap

   Rub a drop of hand dishwashing liquid into the stain with your fingers and leave it for 5 minutes. Soy sauce is mostly salt, water and brown color, but restaurant sauces and stir fries often carry oil too, and dish soap breaks that up. Rinse the soap out well.

4. 4

   Soak in oxygen bleach

   Dissolve oxygen bleach in a bowl of warm water as the label directs and soak the stained area for 15 to 30 minutes. Keep the fabric fully under the water by weighting it with a mug or a white towel. The brown should fade noticeably during the soak.

5. 5

   Pretreat with a stain remover

   Spray or rub a laundry stain remover into what is left of the stain until it is saturated, and let it stand for up to 10 minutes. Do not let the product dry on the fabric. On white cotton or polyester you can instead soak for 5 minutes in 1/4 cup of chlorine bleach per gallon of cool water.

6. 6

   Wash in the warmest safe water

   Wash with a heavy-duty detergent in the warmest water the care label allows. Add oxygen bleach to the wash for colors, or chlorine bleach for bleach-safe whites, following the product label.

7. 7

   Check before you dry

   Look at the stain in good light while the garment is still wet. If you can see any brown shadow, repeat the soak and the pretreatment. Machine dry only when the mark is gone, or air dry to be safe.

How to treat soy sauce on whites, colors and delicates

Match the treatment to the fabric: chlorine bleach is only for bleach-safe whites, oxygen bleach suits most washable colors, and silk or wool needs a gentle hand wash or a dry cleaner. Read the care label first.

The Clorox soy sauce method uses a 5 minute presoak of 1/4 cup of bleach per gallon of water for bleach-safe whites and a color-safe stain remover for colors and spandex. The University of Georgia Extension recommends a 15 to 30 minute soak in warm water with sodium perborate (an oxygen bleach), then a prewash stain remover and a heavy-duty detergent.

Can you get out soy sauce that has already dried?

Yes, a dried soy sauce stain usually still comes out as long as the garment has not been through a hot dryer. It just needs a longer soak.

OxiClean explains that soy sauce leaves a pigment stain from compounds called chromogens, the same kind of color found in cola and berries, and that both fresh and set-in soy sauce stains can be removed. For a dried stain, rinse it first to rehydrate it, then soak in oxygen bleach for an hour or more, up to the time the label allows, before you pretreat and wash.

If the shirt has been machine dried with the stain in it, expect it to take two or three rounds. Each soak lightens it a little. A faint tan shadow on white cotton can often be finished with a chlorine bleach soak, if the label allows bleach.

What to do at the table

Blot with a dry napkin and keep water off it until you can rinse it properly. A wet napkin rubbed on the stain spreads it into a wider ring.

• If you carry a stain remover pen, dab it on and leave it; it buys you time until you get home.
• Club soda does no harm, but it is mostly water and will not remove the color on its own.
• Rinse the stain from the back as soon as you get home, then follow the steps above the same day.
• For other sauces with tomato or oil in them, see our guides to tomato stains and grease stains.

Mistakes to avoid

• Rubbing the stain with a wet napkin, which spreads it into a larger ring.
• Rinsing with hot water before the color is out, which helps set the brown.
• Using chlorine bleach on colors, wool, silk or fabrics with spandex.
• Putting the shirt in the dryer before checking that the stain is completely gone.
• Letting a stain remover spray dry on the fabric instead of washing it within the time on the label.