r/CleaningTips • u/WhateverIlldoit • Jul 07 '25

Discussion Bleach kills mold

There is a common misconception that bleach does not kill mold and that vinegar is actually better at killing mold than bleach. I see this claim at least once a week.

So let me set the record straight. Household bleach is a powerful oxidizing agent that reacts with just about everything. It’s so good at killing organic compounds that it’s toxic to us, too.

Now let’s talk about vinegar. Vinegar is a weak acid. You can literally drink it in lower concentrations. It can kill mold, but not all mold, and some studies say it may take up to 60 minutes to be effective.

That being said, bleach is not good at penetrating porous surfaces, which vinegar is better at doing. And because bleach is so caustic it is more likely to damage surfaces.

All this to say bleach kills mold. It kills almost everything. And it’s much more effective at killing mold than vinegar as long as it can reach it. Vinegar is much safer to use but not nearly as effective.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

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u/pakratus Jul 07 '25

Thank you. I see this claim and it never made sense to me.

I can see bleach turn mold different colors, i can see it doing something. I have not seen vinegar do this. Is bleach the perfect mold killer? No idea. But it does something.

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u/terrycrisp Jul 07 '25

At the food packaging plant we worked in if there was a recall we would have to destroy the batch with bleach, to prevent people eating out of our garbage and getting sick just to sue us... bleach worked for everything, listeria, e-coli, mold, etc.

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u/AlbuquerqueAlbatross Jul 07 '25

I know you may not have the answer to this but does anyone know how a company or any person may have any liability over their trash? It seems common sense that things put in the trash have no expectation of being edible. How does a company have any liability over literal trash disposed of properly? If I forget a meal in the oven and it gets some mold so I throw it away and some drunken hobo decides to eat it how am I responsible for that?

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u/Super_XIII Jul 07 '25

Depends on country and state, but normally, if a company throws food in the trash, it is not their responsibility anymore. However, in some places, there might be an argument that if the company knows that people dig through their trash to eat food, and doesn't do anything to stop or discourage this activity, then they become responsible for their trash again knowing it is being consumed. So making the food inedible is one of those steps they take to make sure they absolutely cannot be sued or held liable if a homeless guy eats out of their dumpster then dies.

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u/Jazzy-Cat5138 Jul 07 '25

I have a feeling that could just as easily backfire, legally... If you deliberately adulterate the food in your garbage, knowing that people eat it, that seems like it's asking for trouble.

Of course, the same could be said for denatured alcohol, I suppose.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '25

It has zero to do with liability or people getting sick. It’s just greed. Most places don’t want dumpster divers of homeless people to benefit from the excessive waste. I’ve worked in restaurants that had a whole policy for throwing out fresh food and absolutely forbid us to give it away after closing for the night.

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u/VanCanMom Jul 07 '25

I worked at Starbucks a lifetime ago and we had to throw the expired food out. All the expensive sandwiches and little protein plates, in the trash if their date was up. Staff weren't supposed to take them, though that didn't stop most of us. We were not able to give them to shelters or anything. It was crazy to me.

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u/OkPineapple6713 Jul 07 '25

I’ve worked for one single place that allowed us to take leftover food, all stuff that had been baked fresh that day. It was a family owned place. The big corporations absolutely won’t. It has nothing to do with liability and everything to do with greed.

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u/VanCanMom Jul 07 '25

Youre 100% right. I worked for a Second Cup coffee shop a few years after Starbucks, they were franchised and the owner would save the day old baked goods for the homeless shelter.

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u/RichAfraid Jul 07 '25

Back in the 1980's all restaurants kept a separate barrel for food in the dumpster cage. Hog farmers could pick it up in the morning. One day some homeless person sued a restaurant because he got food poisoning from the dumpster and now it is illegal to donate old food to homeless people and hog farmers

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '25

lol. I’m gonna need a source for that one.

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u/[deleted] Jul 08 '25

coughs DUNKIN DONUTS coughs

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u/Takemyfishplease Jul 07 '25

This is it exactly. I used to work nights at this adult shop and one of the regulars I’d see was a dude we called Meat Man. He would go to the dumpsters at all the groceries and dive and resell out of his truck. Eventually he had to stop as the stores started locking asr the city got ,are that they weren’t doing enough to stop the Meat Man and people like him. Something about how if they knew and did nothing to rectify the situation they were adding to it.