I'm wondering if any of you have had any success in getting stains, such as from tomato sauce, out of plastic containers. I've tried several of the suggestions I found online so far, but none of them have worked for me. Basically I have an electric food steamer, which came with a white plastic bowl for making stuff such as rice. A few times I made some items in it with tomato sauce which has since stained the container with a faint orange color on the inside. Thus far, I've tried soaking it with bleach, I've tried scrubbing it with a baking soda paste, and I've also tried rubbing it with a lemon, but none of these have worked on it. Are there any other possible methods you may know of?
These stains are very annoying, but you have tried most of the best methods already. White vinegar, baking soda all mixed with hot water and soaked may work, or put the bowl in the microwave and heat up the baking soda mix, then add white vinegar afterwards? You could try a malt vinegar and baking soda combination (hot water) and then leave it soak.
I usually put a squirt of Clorox and it works, but you said you've tried it already and it didn't work. I just thought of the sponge cleaners like Magic Erasers. Walmart has the generic store brand magic eraser that's cheaper. Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser goes on sale from time to time, but I'd wait to see if anyone has tried that before you buy it just for taking out stains in plastic containers. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is great for porcelain sinks and tubs too. You know what...different kinds of plastic containers doesn't have the problem of retaining the red or orange color from tomato foods. Though these plastics you cannot warm things with is good alternative for holding tomato foods in the frig. I know because we reuse plastics from buying fish items and keep the plastics and we love spaghetti. We don't have a microwave any longer and keep the tomato foods in the plastics I got other foods in and it doesn't stain at all.
You could try soaking it in OXI clean or making a paste of Oxiclean and rubbing it into your plastic container. I've used Oxiclean on a white cotton top I had that had an old red wine stain on it. Nothing took it out. I soaked it over night in a mixture of hot water and oxiclean, then put it in the washer and it came out spotless. I am quite impressed with oxiclean and the way it removes stains. I've also heard that if you put cooking spray in a plastic container first the tomato sauce won't stain the plastic. Too late now but something to think about if you get your container clean.
We usually have those tomato sauce stains in plastic container when we reheat the spaghetti in the microwave using plastic container. The advice is to heat the food using a ceramic plate otherwise the color of the tomato sauce will stick to the plastic on a molecule level so it would take time before the stain would go away. This new year, our dish was spaghetti in tomato sauce and we gave away some to the neighbors using plastic containers. It's up to them to reheat the pasta in microwave.
I was going to suggest using bleach but if bleach doesn't work then you could try something different which just might work though there's no guarantee it will. Wash the bowl again and place it somewhere it will be exposed to sunlight for several hours. Do this several times and maybe eventually the bowl will be as white as it was because sunlight can be a good bleaching agent.
As you appear to have tried all the most likely remedies already without any success and many of the other alternatives that I would have mentioned like baking soda and vinegar - as well as giving it a good dose of sunlight have also already been suggested. The only other methods that I know of that have been found to work - are to coat the container with a paste of baking soda and lemon juice and leave it to stand for a couple of hours or if wanting something slightly easier - to fill the container with hot - but not boiling - water and drop in a couple of denture tablets.
How about muriatic acid? You can try the lowest concentration and see if it works. I remember that it was able to remove rust stains that has been on one of my clothes for years.
My experience with any stain on plastic is to just throw it away. I had some Tupperware pieces that stained with tomato sauce from chili or spaghetti and no matter what I tried the stain remained. Plastics, heat and any form of a tomato just don't mix.
I would try to let them sit outside in the sun all day long on an especially sunny day. The sunlight will help bleach to color. For future reference, if you spray the inside of them liberally with spray oil before putting the sauces in it helps prevent it from staining. I also would recommend eating leftovers that could stain within two to three days to prevent the sauce from having time to set in and eat away at the plastic.
