Last Updated on October 30, 2022 by Claire
How to get onion smell out of plastic Tupperware? Tupperware is an important part of your kitchenware even if you have a knack for ceramics and glasses. But this plastic storage can harbor stains and smells for a long time. Worse is if the smell you have to deal with is onion. Onion is a good spice but could leave a disturbing musty smell in your Tupperware.
In this article, you will learn the trick every pro chef uses to get rid of that musty onion smell from your Tupperware. It may sound like a hard job to do, given the clingy smell of onions, but you are sure going to achieve an odorless Tupperware at the end of this article.
How to get onion smell out of plastic Tupperware
Do the following:
Do a warm wash and rinse
There are a series of methods that your Tupperware has to undergo to come out clean. First is washing and rinsing in warm water. This is to remove some of the stains and to prepare it for more advanced cleaning.
Some people like to use warm water in a dishwasher to wash and rinse. Whichever you decide to go with, it is just fine. The idea is to get some of the smell off before going further in the cleaning process.
Wash with lemon juice
Lemon has so much acidic content which is good for human consumption but can fix the onion smell. Lemon juice has a pH between 2 and 3, which means it’s 10,000–100,000 times more acidic than water, according to Healthline. The acid sends the pungent smell of onion packing when scrubbed with soap and water.
Just squeeze the lemon juice into a small cup. Mix with soap and water and scrub your Tupperware for 2 – 5 minutes. After scrubbing, leave the mixture in the plastic for a maximum of 5 minutes, then rinse. At this point, the smell is sure to have disappeared.
Use salt
Salt is a powerful cleaning agent. It helps absorb some of the onion smell, thereby reducing the one left in your Tupperware. Evenly sprinkle some salt in your Tupperware and cover with a lid for some time. Until you want to reuse it, you don’t have to wash it away in a hurry, as the more time the sprinkled salt remains in the container, the more onion smell it absorbs. Wash and rinse when you are ready to reuse to remove that brackish taste of salt.
Get sunlight to remove onion scent
Sunlight is a good odor killer and a good sterilizer. It kills whatever smell there might be, good or bad. We understand that onions have a stubborn smell that does not go away quickly, but they can barely stand a scorching sun.
On a hot day, consider placing your onion-smelling Tupperware in the sun for a few hours, it will help eliminate the onion smell. The more time it is left under the sun, the more odor it is likely to take out. But be careful to not place it on the grass where insects could perch in and contaminate it.
White vinegar can clean onion smell
Vinegar is a natural cleaning agent, so helps keep the onion smell at bay at worst, and takes it out completely at worst. Using white vinegar to clean your onion-strained Tupperware might be the solution you need. The onion smell is stubborn and this requires thorough cleaning agents like white vinegar to leave your Tupperware forever.
All you have to do is pour one cap full of vinegar into the container with white vinegar and leave it for 5 minutes, to get rid of the repugnant smell. Then wash with soap and a sponge, and rinse properly with water. You can decide to leave it for more minutes, with no effects, but it is not necessary to leave it for more than 20 minutes. After rinsing, the smell should have been greatly reduced.
Clean with newspapers
This may sound ridiculous but newspaper, just like the cleaning agents mentioned in this article helps you get that annoying onion smell out of your Tupperware.
Newspapers strangely take out smells from your Tupperware. It absorbs smells, thereby taking out a good amount of smell from your Tupperware. All you have to do is stuff some newspapers in your Tupperware. Also, enclose it by wrapping it in a large newspaper and leaving it overnight. Then take them all out and wash and rinse them in warm water, for a better result. The smell should have gone by now or at worst been reduced to the barest minimum.
Load Tupperware in your dishwasher
Some people feel hesitant to use a dishwasher to clean an onion-smelling Tupperware for various reasons. Some people think the heat from the dishwasher could melt the plastic. Some just do not think that a dishwasher could clean a smell as strong as an onion.
But the truth is that a dishwasher is instrumental in cleaning an onion-stained Tupperware. It may not get the smell off completely but when you include it in your cleaning process, you are sure to get your desired result of a clean-smelling Tupperware.
If you are skeptical about it melting down, you could place it on the upper rack of your dishwasher where the heat is incapable of melting it.
Clean with baking soda
Baking soda is another well-recognized strong cleaning agent that guarantees you an odor-free Tupperware. Mix a little water and a small portion of baking soda, then apply the solution all over your Tupperware.
Leave it that way over the night, then just like what you did with the newspaper cleaning method, wash and rinse thoroughly with warm water. The smell should have disappeared completely by now. You can repeat this process if you do not get the desired result.
Conclusion
The onion smell can be very stubborn, and thus hard to clean off. But with the methods highlighted in this article, we hope the smell would be completely wiped off.
Henceforth, you should place your Tupperware with clingfilm before you store food in them. Lay the clingfilm all over the body in the container with excess on the outer part, over the brim so that the lid does not get stained with the smell. This is so that you do not have to deal with the annoying smell of onions or any other strong smell.
