March 31, 2015

Japanese company 'makes tear-free onions'

Scientists in Japan say they have managed to disable the production of a powerful substance an onion releases as the knife slice
Scientists in Japan say they have managed to disable the production of a powerful substance an onion releases as the knife slices into it, cutting down on the pungent fumes that bring tears to the eyes

The sobbing of a chef as he chops onions in the kitchen could be a thing of the past thanks to one Japanese company which says it has produced a tear-free vegetable.

Scientists say they have managed to disable the production of a powerful substance an onion releases as the knife slices into it, cutting down on the pungent fumes that bring tears to the eyes.

House Foods Group said in a 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.

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

The company's researchers won the Ig Nobel Prize—an award handed out to honour achievements organisers consider unintentionally funny—in 2013 for their discovery of the behind how make people blubber.

© 2015 AFP

Citation: Japanese company 'makes tear-free onions' (2015, March 31) retrieved 25 April 2025 from https://phys.org/news/2015-03-japanese-company-tear-free-onions.html
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