A plastic tray is an indispensable thing in the household: take food for work, store spices, and warm something in the microwave. Yes, that's just the smell in the container starts up is not very pleasant, especially if you keep fish in it. It turns out that the bad aroma is difficult, but I found my ideal way that I have been using for many years.
Newspaper - Food Container Friend
So what am I doing? First of all, I wash off the rest of the food with water and detergent. Then 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 matter, but it can completely remove any smell. In the morning, the container smacks of slightly newsprint. After a couple of minutes, this aroma disappears. And again I use the dishes on my own (I mainly take a snack for work).
Ah, yes - so that the newspaper consumption is not so large, I advise you to tear the sheets and crumple into tight balls. It is not necessary to fill the container tightly. Papers can move freely inside. The main thing is that they reach the top.
And if there are no newspapers?
Understanding that not everyone is buying newspapers home, I want to share how you can replace them. Once my newspaper supplies ran out and I couldn’t find anything better than stuffing a food tray ... with toilet paper. At my fingertips was a gray, economical version of the old model. What can I say, she dealt with the elimination of smell by 5+!
Other ways (my personal rating)
Until I came across a method with newspapers, I happened to try many other methods of dealing with an unpleasant odor. As I just did not torment containers for food! Something helped to remove the stink, something didn’t.
My personal rating:
- Boiling. The best way to remove the unpleasant smell of plastic (not counting the newspaper) is to boil the containers. We collect water in a pan, add 3 tbsp. tablespoons of baking soda and 1 tbsp. a spoon 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 should be labeled “BPA free”).
- 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 destroys odors better than special cleaners.
- Vinegar. White table vinegar works wonders if a foul odor appears in the refrigerator. But with plastic containers, as it seemed to me, he copes worse. We dilute it in half with water, rub the food tray and leave it to dry. Then rinse.
- Coffee. I read about this method on the Internet. Just 30–40 g of coffee beans remained, which my family did not like. I ground them, poured them into the tray. Closed the lid. I waited 8 hours. At the opening, the smell was divine. But ... in this tray I marinated the fish, and a day later the fish stink returned. The result was not the best "bouquet." I didn’t use the coffee method anymore.
- 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 fragrance remained 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 this is due to sealing gum. Look for it on the lid or at the edge of the tray. Surely leftovers of food accumulated under it, which give an unpleasant smell. Remove it and thoroughly clean everything. Good luck
Always Yours, Aunt Glasha