How to remove odors from spice jar lids

3 years ago

I replaced a bunch of spice jars, and would like to reuse my old ones, but the lids are holding onto odors pretty strongly. So far I've done a couple of hot soapy water soaks, baking soda and water, vinegar and water overnight, and borax and water for several hours. The borax seems to have done the most, where the water smells strongly of spices now, and all of the lids kind of smell the same, like a blend of all the spices. I'm not sure what else to try. Perhaps bleach might work, or ammonia (obv not together). Any other suggestions? I've read bright sunlight might help, but we aren't expecting any for a few days and would love to try to resolve this asap.

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Comments (3)

krissie55
3 years ago
Found this on internet & it indicates sunshine is the best.

"Lids: The food smell does not leave lids as easily as it does glass. You can try washing in hot soapy water, sprinkling with baking soda, and soaking in vinegar, but Bonneau says the most effective method is the simplest: set them outside in direct sunlight."
Laurel C
Original Author
3 years ago
I did a test, in case anyone comes across this in the future. After soaking in all of the various concoctions, the lids all pretty much smelled the same. I soaked a jar lid in isopropyl alcohol for 18 hours, then let it dry. I placed it in the sun, alongside a few jar lids that had been through the rest of the "treatments" including hot soapy water, baking soda, vinegar, and borax. I also put a jar lid with a paste of baking soda on the same plate, and let everything sit in the sun for 4 hours. The baking soda one was decreased but still had an odor, the "control" group all had a strong odor, and the isopropyl alcohol soaked one smelled of nearly nothing It was also significantly less stained than the rest of them. I'm doing a larger test group of the alcohol soaked ones and will see if just the alcohol soak alone is enough or if the time spent in the sun is required to remove the odor.
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Laurel C
Original Author
3 years ago
OK, additional update - I did several more jar lids for 18 hours in isopropyl alcohol and it has taken the majority of the stink away, however it took a few hours in direct sunlight to remove the lions share of the remaining smell. There's a tiny bit left, but it's faint - I wouldn't feel bad storing my own stuff in these, but I'm hoping to use them for kefir grain starts and I would prefer to have no smell remaining. I'm hoping increasing the time of my soak to 24 hours and the time spent outside to a day will entirely eliminate the spice odor. Happy surprise is that the combo of IPA and sun has bleached all of the spice staining from the liners as well. I'm also testing a lid in some vodka to see if that works also, it does appear as though it's going to though, which will be nice as the isopropyl alcohol mixture I'm cycling lids through has turned yellow from the turmeric stain on my turmeric jar lid, and I have a lot of vodka and not a lot of IPA in the house.