How to Remove a Chili Sauce Stain

Chili sauce recipes can vary, but one recipe that remains the same is the ideal concoction of cleaning products needed to adequately remove the stains left behind on clothing by an over ambitious eater of chili.

Removing Chili Sauce Stains - Catch the Stain Early

If you are at a chili cook-off or merely eating the dish at home, rapid response is always best. In a situation where a shirt change is entirely permissible, change clothes at once and immediately begin to treat the stain. If time is needed, then do your best to remove any excess chili from the stained area including sauce particles like chili meat.

Removing Chili Sauce Stains - Pre-Treating

Most chili sauces contain oils in some form or another, and many times this oil or grease comes to the top of the chili from the meat employed in the preparation of the sauce. When dealing with a grease or oil stain or the potential for one, it is important to use colder water. A cold water bath for the stain from the back side is a good way to further dislodge any large or crusted sections of chili sauce that remain on the garment.

Removing Chili Sauce Stains - Stain Remover

Pull out your favorite stain removing method and attack the spot. The University of Illinois Extension offers that aerosol-based stain fighting products work the best at combating stains with actual grease or oils present versus other varieties of stain fighting products such as gel or pump bottles. Depending on your garment's material construction, the use of a small brush could prove handy but the pads of the fingers will work well-enough at the beginning stages of scrubbing out a stain.

When you feel that the stain has faded, rinse the shirt through with cold water again. If portions of the stain remain, repeat the use of the stain removal spray followed by the rinse cycle. After the stain is highly faded, use a small portion of your laundry detergent to scrub the stain clean again before rinsing one final time and applying stain remover one last time before adding the garment to the traditional wash bin.

Removing Chili Sauce Stains - Final Check

After you remove your chili sauce stained shirt from the washing machine, give it a close inspection to verify that the stain was entirely removed. If the results are very good, consider trying the spray and wash routine one last time before drying as the dryer will permanently set your stain. Should a small remnant of the stain remain, bleaching with chlorine bleach or oxygen bleach is a last resort, but only easily accomplished with white fabrics.

Chile Sauce stains contain several ingredients and can be a bit difficult to work out of a garment!

Sources:

http://web.extension.illinois.edu/stain/staindetail.cfm?ID=78. 12 May 2010.