No goggles required: ‘Tearless’ onions go on sale in UK supermarkets

Home cooks often find chopping onions to be a nightmare in the kitchen, but with the introduction of tearless onions in the UK, it could be a thing of the past.

Sunions, a brown, tearless and sweet onion variety that is being billed as a "game-changer" for red-eyed chefs, will be sold in the stores of Waitrose next week. The onions, which are being marketed using the strapline "not a single tear", have taken more than 30 years to perfect.

Britons go to great lengths to take away the sob factor at meal times because of the irritation caused by the vapours released when chopping into an onion. The onions were stuck in the freezer first, soaking them in water or wearing swimming goggles. John Lewis sells special goggles with anti-fog glasses for just over twenty dollars.

Sunions are perfect for those with sensitive eyes as well as cooking in the kitchen with children, so onion goggles could soon be obsolete.

Paul Bidwell, the onion buyer at the supermarket, said that Sunions would be a versatile ingredient. He said that the sweetness of this type of onion makes it perfect for a variety of dishes.

At a time when food bills are going up, Sunions are a lot more expensive than regular onions. A pack of Sunions costs about 50p. It is three times more expensive than the cheapest onions from Waitrose.

Scientists around the world have been working on prototypes for decades to develop a tearless onion. Sunions were launched in the US four years ago. The brand was picked up by a number of Spanish retailers.

The onion was originally developed by the agricultural giant Bayer and is now owned by the chemicals firm. Sunions are the product of decades of cross-breeding of less potent strains of onion.

On the brand's website, they say that they become sweeter every day. Over time, the amount ofVolatile compounds in onions remain the same or increase, while the amount ofVolatile compounds in other onions remain the same. These compounds do the opposite and decrease to create a tearless, sweet and mild onion.