Fruits and Vegetables: How to Remove Berry Stains
Picking and eating fresh fruits and vegetables keeps you healthy, but when you accidentally spill them, you need to know how to handle the mess. This is especially important when it comes to eating berries, which can be difficult to treat if you don’t get to the stains quickly.
Types of Berry Stains
Berry stains are some of the easiest to see on clothing, and depending on the colour and type of fabric, some of the hardest to treat. Whether you’ve just eaten a blackberry, blueberry, strawberry, mulberry, cranberry or raspberry, you must act fast. Why? These fruits stain on two fronts. Their strong dyes leave marks immediately. If left to sit, the sugars in the fruit juices will yellow the fabric. Washing with a detergent that includes an oxygen bleach is often the most suitable approach to get rid of this hard stain.
Removing Berry Stains: Step by Step
So, how do you get rid of them?
- Pick your preferred Dynamo Professional detergent
- Quickly blot up and scrape off as much of the juice and solid berry remaining on the clothing
- Turn the clothing inside out and flush it with cool water
- Wash at the highest recommended washing temperature according to the care label instruction
- Check the stain
- If the stain remains, repeat the washing by using an increased dosage amount of your selected detergent and/or prolong the washing cycle. Additionally a prior soaking of the clothing can be helpful to get rid of such difficult stains.
Choose a Detergent and Stain Remover
The most important thing with berry stains is to act fast, so make sure you have the right Dynamo Professional detergent handy for getting berry stains out of clothing. For finer or more delicate fabrics, you can consider using a sensitive detergent.
Pre-Treat the Stained Area
Scrape as much of the berry off as possible, then blot the area with a clean towel to get rid of excess liquid. Turn the clothing inside out and flush cool water through the stain on the backside. For pre-treatment apply a small amount of Dynamo Professional directly onto the stain, gently rub in and let it sit for a while.
Wash and Rinse
The higher the washing temperature the better the bleach effect and stain removal performance. Therefore, use the highest washing temperature that is allowed (make sure to first check your laundry’s care label instructions) to get rid of bleachable fruit and berry stains. Apart from that, choose the ‘heavily soiled’ dosage amount as indicated on your selected Dynamo Professional detergent.
Check if the Stain is Gone
After washing, see if the stain has faded. If the stain has not gone and the clothing is white or colourfast, repeat washing by using a higher detergent dosage and or prolonging the wash time. As long as the clothing is colourfast you can also soak it in a washing mixture of Dynamo Professional and warm water for half an hour, then wash once more.
Removing Berry Stains From Special Laundry Types and Fabrics
Whether you’re trying to remove a berry stain from a shirt or a strawberry stain on white pants, the steps above should help if you’ve acted quickly enough.
If you’re washing certain fabrics like silk, wool or cotton, take care on what detergent you use and how you wash the clothing. Silk and wool require a sensitive detergent and mainly hand washing, if they are not dry clean only!
Removing Berry Stains on White Clothes
If you have a berry stain on a white piece of clothing, pre-treat the stain as normal to get rid of it.
Summer is the time for fresh, juicy berries. Enjoy yourself without worrying about berry stains. These tips will help you get rid of them fast!