Skip to Content

How to remove tomato stains: Quick and easy tips

Whether it’s tomato soup, freshly made spaghetti Bolognese, or oven-baked pizza, these tomato-based meals are prone to spills, easily slipping from your plate and splattering onto your t-shirt or jeans. At first, you might think that your clothing (and your dinner) is now completely ruined, but if you act fast and take the right steps, you’ll see that the following tomato sauce stain removal methods are easy and work great!

With just a few household utensils, water, liquid detergent, and a washing machine, you and your family can get back to enjoying a nice meal and won’t have to worry about stains ruining your clothing.
A glass of red wine spilled onto a button-up shirt.

How to remove tomato stains from clothes: Step-by-step

  1. Remove all the excess tomato stains sauce. If there isare any tomato saucestains still on your shirt or jeans, attempt to remove as much as possible by scraping with a butter knife or spoon. You can also dab gently with a paper towel to soak up any extra sauce. This will help to remove the bulk of the stain from your clothing.
  2. Run cold water through the stain. The next step to removing tomato stains from clothes is to turn on a tap and run cold water through the stain. It’s best to do this from the back of the stain, so that the tomato sauce isn’t affecting any more of your garment. If it’s on a t-shirt, for example, you could turn it inside out and flush the stain out with the cold water. Try this for around 5-10 minutes.
  3. Use dish soap and liquid laundry detergent. Because the tomato stain will likely have had oil in it as well, like in a Bolognese sauce, it’s best to apply a bit of of dish soap directly to the stain. Gently work the soap in a circular motion into the stain, then rinse with cold water. To tackle the tomato sauce itself, pre-treat by pouring a small amount of Persil® liquid laundry detergent onto the stain and, again, gently work it into the fabric. Rinse with cold water.
  4. Wash the garment as usual. After the wash cycle has ended, check the stain to see if it is completely gone. Otherwise, use the same tomato stain removal tips mentioned above. You don’t want to put the garment in the dryer until you’re sure the stain is gone, as heat can make the stain set.
  5. More tips on how to wash white clothes can be found here 

Effective tomato stain removal really comes down to speed and timing! Try to treat and wash the garment as soon as possible, or at least use the correct pre-treatment methods before placing the item in the washing machine.