Japanese company makes tear-free onions

The American southeast has had a tearless onion for decades or more. It is called a Vidalia sweet onion and looks the same as a regular yellow onion but you can slice and dice them all night long and there is not fumes to make you tear up. You can also eat them raw but they cause rather a lot of gas.

If you put the onion in the frig overnight, the cold onion will not make you cry. I prefer that to "irradiation", which sounds dangerous. Although I am not Mr. Science.

Vidalias are produced by growing in sulfur deficient soils or otherwise reducing the sulfur content. They are called "tearless" though they are not completely so. The lack of sulfur also makes the onions less nutritious than ordinary onions - and of course they lack the flavor needed for cooking.

There are also genetic approaches to making tearless onions.

This article is the first I've heard of using irradiation for that purpose, though it has been used to help preserve fresh foods.

Personally, I would hate to sacrifice any of the nutrition and taste in my onions just to avoid a tear or two. Modern taste buds are being dulled enough as it is. There people who slice and dice onions all day as a job, and they stop tearing up after the eyes adjust to it.

April fools ?

@gokai: People do not do grocery shopping every day. So oninon could be inside of Refr for several days.

Or use Just a large plastic glassed sunglass. Or you can modify your forehead using binoculos.

There are also flat eye masks in toy stores, the ones nurses and medical professionals use.

But the cook's tears are the most delicious part of the onion!

More high-tech lab altered food: from tears of joy to tears of sadness.

Use a properly sharp knife and the tear-causing drops don't shoot into the air the same. Popping the onion into the fridge for a bit (it doesn't have to be overnight) also helps.

Maybe I'm a kitchen Luddite, but I don't like the sound of irradiated onions, either.

I second what cleo said. If you are crying too much from cutting onions it is most likely a sign that you need to get your knife sharpened, or quit using a cheap knife.

What's new about this? I remember about a year ago, almost to the day when a German company announced they had perfected onions that could actually make you laugh when you cut them. They had managed to alter the gas in some way.

@nandakanda

I see where you're coming from, but this was in the Japanese press yesterday....

As a contact lens sufferer I cannot even remember the last time my eyes were irritated by an onion.

A simple solution is to just buy a pair of goggles for onion chopping if it bothers you so much.

With certain enzymes being disabled, my question is what health benefits are we giving up with that? I know there is an enzyme in onions that thins the blood, providing you don't get the onion wet and you chop and leave it to interact with oxygen for 20 minutes. And I suspect its the same enzyme they are getting rid of.

Plus, the world certainly has bigger onions to fry if you follow my meaning.

This company does not "make" any onion. All this company does is subject onions to radiation. This headline is misleading and the contents lacked any substance what so ever.

lucabrasi, thanks! Well, it was worth a try...

This is really cool! I can not eat regular onions due to Gerd. However, I wonder if these would have the same acidic affects?

Is the taste of it gone too? I like that pungent taste, so I hope it's not gone!

Use an extremely sharp ceramic knife - no tears...

hah, nice.

A spokesman said no decision had yet been made on whether they would commercialise (sic) their tear-free onions.

No tears, no onion. There goes the potency of this magical food.

Ludicrous! Brings tears to my eyes...

I buy frozen already-chopped onions when I can. This way I don't have to worry about crying when I chop the onion or my finger.

"Onion means tear, Tear means Onion". This is called "Law of Onion".

Good news. Torn onions lose their flavor.

When slicing or dicing onions, a good way to prevent tears is to clasp a full slice of bread , by the edge crust between your teeth so 95% of the slice droops downwards.

The sulphuric compounds that waft upwards are mostly absorbed by the bread - before reaching the eyes.

After finishing, pour a nice glass of shiraz, put on some heavy metal, sit down and relax while nibbling the onion flavoured bread between sips & sups.

As an alternative the bread can be toasted, but you will need to retain a heavy dollop of metal.

PS - this is not April Foolery - please try.

I initially thought this was an April Fools gag, but doesn't seem to be.

House Foods Group said in a press release that they bombarded the brown bulb with irradiating ions in a process that drastically reduces the level of a certain enzyme that is key to this process.

Careful... you'll either have an Incredible Hulk Onion or Onionzilla.

a good way to prevent tears is to clasp a full slice of bread , by the edge crust between your teeth so 95% of the slice droops downwards

I have asked my friends and family, if they ever catch me slicing onions with a piece of bread hanging out of my mouth, to just shoot me and put me out of my misery.

commanteer - Ha, Ha!

That's why you need the wine & heavy metal - then you're deemed sane!!!

But - someone please try it and report back on it's efficacy.

Irradiating vegetables has been a common practice for a long time. Most famous being irradiating potatos to supress potato eyes from shooting out.

Going to stick with growing my own and living with the tears, thanks...