Tearless onions in Australia

'Tearless' onions are now available in Australia 

A quote from the paper - Production and characterization of tearless and non-pungent onion | Scientific Reports (nature.com):

We believe that these tearless, non-pungent onions not only will wipe tears away from the kitchen and the food processing facilities, but also will add a new dimension to the enjoyment of onion recipes around the world.

What fun.  I wonder if you could eat these raw like an apple.  I also wonder if the taste would be watered down significantly.  The US has been selling tearless onions since 2018, I am not sure if it is the same as these or if they have a different variety.  Perhaps someone from the US can comment and let me know if tearless onions are worth trying.  

These 'tearless onions' were not Genetically Modified.  These were bred from inducing a mutation, and then selecting and culling and self pollinating until the new variety bred true to type.  

To summarise how these tearless onions were bred:

• They irradiated seeds from “Super-Kitamomiji” onions and planted 1,500 seeds.  From these they selected the best 9 plants and culled the rest. 
• These were allowed to flower and set seed.  From these the researchers planted about 350 seeds.  Selected the best 18 plants and culled the rest. 
• These were allowed to flower and set seed.  From these they planted 1,078 seeds.  Selected the best 2 plants and culled the rest.
• These two plants were allowed to flower and set seed.  They appear to breed true to type.  
• They now have 2 lines of tearless onions that are being produced commercially.

As you can see, breeding a new anything takes large numbers, and several generations.  

One variety of tearless onions is to be sold in NSW and VIC Woolworths starting tomorrow!  I have no idea how they taste, the news says they are sweeter than regular onions.  

I want to get some, plant them, collect seed, and…you can probably guess the rest, plant breeding is a slippery slope. 

Tearless onions - not my photo

Edit to add: after writing this post I bought some tearless onions and got to taste them.  I wrote a blog post of what tearless onions taste like.  I also grew some of these onions, allowed them to flower.  Once the seed is ready I plan to offer it on my for sale page for home gardeners who would like to grow tearless onions themselves.