How to remove odor from a plastic container? This method has never let me down!

A plastic tray is an indispensable thing in the household: you can take food to work, store spices, or heat something in the microwave. But the smell in the container is not very pleasant, especially if you keep fish in it. It is difficult to remove a bad aroma, but I found my ideal method, which I have been using for many years.

Newspaper is a food container's friend

So what do I do? The first thing I do is wash off any remaining food with water and detergent. Then I immediately fill the tray to the top with newspapers, close the lid and leave it overnight. I don’t know what unknown force lives in printed materials, but it can completely remove any odor. In the morning the container smells only slightly of newsprint. After a couple of minutes, this aroma disappears. And I'm back to using the dishes as I see fit (mostly taking snacks to work).

Oh, yes - so that the consumption of newspapers is not so large, I advise you to tear the sheets and crumple them into loose balls. There is no need to pack the container tightly. The papers can move freely inside. The main thing is that they reach to the top.

What if there are no newspapers?

Understanding that not everyone buys newspapers home, I want to share what can be used to replace them. One day my supplies of newspapers ran out and I couldn’t find anything better than to fill the food tray with... toilet paper. I had a gray one on hand, an economy version of the old style. What can I say, she managed to eliminate the smell with a 5+!

Other methods (my personal rating)

Until I came across the newspaper method, I had tried many other methods of dealing with unpleasant odors. I tormented food containers so much! Some helped remove the stench, some did not.

My personal rating:

1. Boiling. The best way to remove the unpleasant smell of plastic (not counting newspaper) is to boil the containers. Fill a saucepan with water and add 3 tbsp. spoons of baking soda and 1 tbsp. a spoonful of laundry soap. Boil the container for exactly 5 minutes and then rinse. It is important that the plastic is reusable and does not contain bisphenol A (it must be labeled “BPA free”).
2. Soda. If the smell in plastic containers is not strong, it will be enough to wash them with soda paste (soda diluted with water). Rub the walls thoroughly and rinse after 20 minutes. In my opinion, baking soda removes odors better than special cleaners.
3. Vinegar. White table vinegar works wonders if there is a bad smell in the refrigerator. But it seemed to me that it copes worse with plastic containers. We dilute it in half with water, rub the food tray and leave until dry. Then we rinse.
4. Coffee. I read about this method on the Internet. There were just 30–40 g of coffee beans left, which my family did not like. I ground them up and poured them into a tray. She closed the lid. I waited 8 hours. When opened, the smell was divine. But... I marinated fish in this tray, and a day later the fishy smell returned. The result was not the best “bouquet”. I didn’t use the coffee method anymore.
5. Salt. In my case it turned out to be useless. It was necessary to get rid of the smell of spices. I filled the tray with rock salt and waited a day. The aroma remained just as strong.

I also noticed that if you dry plastic containers closer to the sun, they smell much less. It seems that ultraviolet rays also have a disinfecting effect.

Finally, it happens that neither newspapers nor other methods help get rid of the smell. In 99 cases out of 100, the sealing gum is to blame. Look for it on the lid or at the edge of the tray. Surely food remains have accumulated underneath it, which gives off an unpleasant odor. Remove it and clean everything thoroughly. Good luck!

Always yours, Aunt Glasha