How to remove tomato stains: sauce, ketchup and pizza spills

Step by step: how to remove tomato stains

1. 1

   Scrape off the sauce

   Lift thick sauce or ketchup off with the edge of a spoon or a dull knife, working from the outside in. Do not wipe it with a napkin, which smears the red pigment into a wider patch.

2. 2

   Flush cold water through the back

   Turn the fabric inside out and hold the stain under a cold tap for a minute or two. Rinsing from the back pushes sauce out the way it came in, while rinsing from the front drives it deeper. Hot water now can help the color bind.

3. 3

   Break up the oil with dish soap

   Pasta sauce, pizza sauce and salsa contain oil that carries the red pigment into the fibers. Work a few drops of hand dishwashing liquid into the stain with your fingers or a soft toothbrush, wait 5 minutes, and rinse with cool water.

4. 4

   Apply an enzyme stain remover

   Saturate the spot with a laundry stain remover or rub in a liquid detergent that contains enzymes. Leave it for 10 minutes, or the time on the label. Most of the red should rinse out at this point, leaving at most a faint orange tint.

5. 5

   Soak any orange shadow in oxygen bleach

   Dissolve oxygen bleach in a gallon of the warmest water the care label allows, submerge the item, and soak for 1 to 6 hours. Check it every hour; the orange tint should fade steadily.

6. 6

   Wash warm

   Wash with your usual detergent on a warm cycle, or the warmest the label allows. Leave the pretreatment on rather than rinsing it out first.

7. 7

   Air dry, in the sun if you can

   Hang the item to dry and check it before it goes anywhere near the dryer. On whites and colorfast fabric, drying in direct sunlight helps fade the last of the tomato pigment. Repeat the stain remover and soak if any color is left.

Why are tomato stains so stubborn?

Tomato stains are stubborn because they are a combination stain: a red-orange plant pigment that acts like a dye, carried by oil and sometimes sugar. You have to remove the oil and the color, in that order.

The red comes from lycopene, a carotenoid pigment that dissolves in fat rather than water. That is why sauce cooked with olive oil or meat sets harder than a splash of tomato juice. Consumer Reports calls tomato foods doubly challenging for the same reason: the pigment acts as a dye, and the oil saturates and sticks to fibers. Colorado State University Extension lists ketchup and barbecue sauce as combination stains and advises treating them as oil stains first, then as dye stains.

Ketchup, pasta sauce, pizza and salsa: what changes?

The basic method is the same, but how much you need the dish soap step depends on the oil, and sugary sauces need more rinsing.

For barbecue and spaghetti sauces, the University of Georgia Extension describes a longer routine: a solvent spot cleaner, then dish detergent, then a 30-minute oxygen bleach soak before washing with heavy-duty detergent. For plain ketchup, it suggests a prewash stain remover and a heavy-duty liquid detergent wash.

How to remove old or dried tomato stains

Old tomato stains usually come out with a long pretreat and soak, even after a trip through the dryer. Saturate the spot with a stain remover spray and leave it for the longest time the label allows, then soak in oxygen bleach for up to 6 hours and wash.

OxiClean notes that its spray can be left on for 5 minutes up to a week before washing, which helps when you find the stain days later, and suggests a 6-hour soak for white clothes. Tide recommends washing old stains on the hottest setting the care label permits and rewashing, not drying, if any color remains.

Tomato stains on upholstery, carpet and plastic containers

On surfaces you cannot put in the washer, use as little liquid as possible and blot instead of scrubbing.

• Upholstery: blot, then dab with a solution of 1/4 teaspoon dish soap in 1 cup of warm water, blot dry, and rinse with a damp cloth. Check the cleaning code first; see how to clean a couch.
• Carpet: scrape, blot, apply the same dish soap solution, and blot from the outside in. Our carpet stain guide covers rinsing and drying.
• Plastic food containers: the oily pigment soaks into the plastic. Wash promptly in hot soapy water; a paste of baking soda and water can lighten the tint, and many people find a day or two on a sunny windowsill fades it further.

Mistakes to avoid

• Wiping sauce off with a napkin, which spreads the pigment.
• Rinsing from the front, which pushes the stain deeper into the fabric.
• Skipping the dish soap on oily sauces, so the color stays trapped in the oil.
• Using hot water before the stain is treated.
• Drying the item while an orange shadow is still there.