How to remove chocolate stains from clothes

Chocolate ice cream, hot chocolate, chocolate pudding — the list of chocolate treats is endless, and so are the chances of spilling something on your clothing. Infants and fully-grown adults can be equally guilty of causing an unexpected chocolate stain, but don’t worry: these brown stains are easily treatable. Here’s a list of easy-to-follow chocolate stain removal tips that will help you get chocolate out of a variety of fabrics.

Persistence is key to stain removal. Apply a laundry liquid like OMO ULTRA to the stain as a pre-treatment, and then wash as usual on a cool cycle, following the instructions on the care label. If the stain doesn’t disappear on the first go, try again – stubborn stains need perseverance!

How to Remove Chocolate Stains from Clothes – Washable Fabrics

Luckily, with some fast action and a little bit of elbow grease, it’s not too difficult to remove chocolate stains from everyday washable fabrics like cotton, linen, nylon, or polyester.

1. Scrape or blot away any excess chocolate from stain. Be gentle when doing this, as you don’t want to grind the chocolate further into the clothing fibres.

2. Flush the back of the stained fabric with cold running water or soda water. Ideally, hold the reverse of the fabric under the tap or — if that’s impossible — saturate the stain with cold water or soda water. This will help loosen the chocolate particles and drive them out of the clothing fibres.

3. Rub a laundry liquid or dishwashing liquid into the stain. Do this thoroughly (but not too roughly) and make sure the detergent saturates the fabric. OMO ULTRA has a Stain Eraser Ball that you can use for pre-treating stains.

4. Soak the garment in cold water for 15 minutes, and gently rub at the stain every 3-5 minutes or so. Keep on doing this and rinsing, until the stain is gone. You may need to re-apply more detergent for a particularly tough stain.

5. If the stain persists, apply a commercial stain remover. Follow the directions.

6. Launder as usual in the washing machine, and the stain should be gone! If not, repeat steps 2-5. Be sure to check the stain is completely gone before you tumble-dry or iron the garment.

How to Remove Chocolate Stains from Non-Washable Fabrics

Acetate, silk, rayon, wool, and other non-washable fabrics may require a more specialised approach to chocolate stain removal. It might be easier to take any clothing to the dry cleaners rather than risking any damage.

With these steps, you now know how to remove chocolate from clothes!

• Always read your garment care tags first.

• Act quickly once your clothes have been stained. The longer you wait to treat chocolate stains, the harder it will be to remove them.

• Always use cold water to treat a chocolate stain, as hot water can cause a chocolate stain to set.

• When treating as stain, ideally place a clean cloth or paper towel underneath the stain, so it does not spread onto the fabric underneath.