A good should linger in your memory, but not on the sides of your food storage containers. And yet, tomato sauce is one of the foods that most bedevils home cooks with its characteristic orange stains. Why is tomato sauce such a scourge? It has to do with the very thing that makes tomatoes tomatoes: lycopene, a pigment that gives the fruits their bright red and orange colors.
Lycopene plays a similar role with other plants, like pink grapefruits and red cabbage, as well. Pigments aside, lycopene has profound health benefits. It's a carotenoid, an antioxidant that also helps prevent strokes, and consuming it may lower one's risk of developing some cancers, including prostate cancer.
So, don't hate the player — hate the stain. And then, reach under the sink or into your baking drawer, because what you need to get rid of that stain are common household items that you probably already have lying around: baking soda and vinegar (just one or the other — you don't even need both). Simple ingredients, a bit of elbow grease, and a small amount of time: That's all it takes, and pretty soon those tomato stains will be gone.
How to use baking soda and vinegar to get rid of tomato stains In addition to repelling bad health outcomes, lycopene also repels water — it's hydrophobic, the property that makes it unusually resistant to a good scrubbing. So, how do you get rid of this stuff? One surefire way is to store tomato sauce in something more stain-resistant than plastic, like glass .