Bush Summit: Tearless onions among the agricultural inventions being developed on Aussie farms
It's the food frustrated cooks have been crying out for for decades, and now tearless onions have been brought to life on farms in regional Australia.
It's the food frustrated cooks have been crying out for, and its been brought to life on farms in regional Australia.
Tearless onions have been a recent innovation in agricultural technology, developed with the help of BASF Australia and Woolworths.
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The new variety took three decades to develop through careful selection and work by Aussie farmers, and has been tested and proved to be less pungent than regular ones, meaning people don’t tear up when they slice them.
“As a natural self-defence mechanism, onions release a combination of chemicals and enzymes that can cause some tears and irritation when an onion is damaged or cut. But these have less of these volatile compounds, and the compounds also continue to reduce after they’re harvested,” BASF Customer Marketing Specialist Sam Clayfield said.
This means the new crop becomes less potent over time, which is the opposite in regular onions.
The finished result is a much sweeter taste, which Mr Clayfield pointed out actually makes them tasty enough to eat fresh.
“They don’t have that same pungency, so you can actually eat them raw. A nice wedge with a bit of dip for the happy chop is delightful,” Clayfield said.
“Otherwise, you can’t beat it on a barbecue. I think that’s the best way to eat an onion on top of a snag.”
And the growers maintain one of the best aspects of the vegetable creation is that it is not genetically modified, with tearless onions being cropbred using natural and traditional means.
Woolworths and BASF first worked with a local grower in South Australia to bring this unique product to Aussie shelves in 2023 for a limited time.
Known as ‘Happy Chop Tearless Onions’, operations have expanded due to increasing demand.
“Bringing tearless onions to market for our customers has been a really interesting. From working with BASF’s seed business and supporting our grower, to bringing the onions from farm to table … it’s really been a game changer for meal prep,” Woolworths Commercial Director, Fruit & Vegetables Paul Turner said.
Woolworths procures 96 per cent of its fruit and vegetables from Australian producers, with around 950 million kilos procured annually from almost 400 suppliers across the country.
