Brit cooks used to breaking into tears as they dice onions have been offered some welcome relief by a variety of the vegetable that doesn’t make you cry.
Waitrose are set to put on their shelves a type of sweet onion that promises to keep shoppers dry eyed as they prepare meals.
Sold as the first tearless onions, the Sunions have a mild flavour that also makes them a good option for salads, claims Waitrose.
The new variety of onions are grown in Spain and will retail at £1.50 for a three-pack when they go on sale next Tuesday - so a pricy alternative to a typical 14p onion sold loose from Waitrose.
Paul Bidwell, Onion Buyer at Waitrose told the Daily Mail: 'We understand how a-peeling tearless onions are to our customers which is why we're delighted to launch Sunions in selected stores and via Waitrose.com from 18th January."
The new onions have not been made through genetic modification but via cross-breeding less pungent onion varieties.
Onions cause eyes to water because they release sulfenic acid that causes irritation when they are cut.
Studies have revealed what enzyme causes the tear-inducing compound - lachrymatory-factor synthase which leads to the acid being formed when it comes into contact with people’s eyes.
And Sunions have been developed over several decades so as to not release as much of the compound.
But they have not been universally popular with claims that they lack flavour.
A Washington Post review confirmed that they did not cause tears but said the onions were “flavourless”.
The Sunion website reads: "Sunions are currently grown only in Nevada and Washington.
"Their tearless quality and incredible flavour profile that is consistently sweet, mild and crunchy is all thanks to a tightly-controlled brand promise that Sunions must be certified to be both tearless and sweet before shipping to grocery stores."
