The Sunion onion is perfect for those with sensitive eyes as well as for cooking in the kitchen with children, the supermarket chain Waitrose says.

Their mild flavour makes them perfect for use in cooking while they can also be used raw in a salad, the firm added.

The onions are the invention of Rick Watson, a plant breeder working for the German chemical company BASF.

He began working on the innovation in the late 1980s, using natural techniques rather than genetic modification to create the unique variety.

The brand said it took more than 30 years of breeding less pungent varieties of onion to find a variety where the vapours released on chopping are not powerful enough to bring tears to the eye.

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Sunions, which cost more than standard onions, are already on sale in America but have not been universally well-received.

A 2018 review in the Washington Post said they were very sweet – “sweet enough that you could sit there and eat them like popcorn” and barely had any scent. Another journalist who tried them said they were “almost flavourless”.

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