Canberra, Jul 10 (IANS): Australian supermarket giant Woolworths on Monday announced that the country's first batch of "tearless" onions will hit the shelves in stores across New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory from Wednesday until September.

"The unique onion variety is exactly as the name implies, an onion that's less likely to make you cry when you cut it," Xinhua news agency quoted Woolworths as saying in a statement.

According to the statement, the tearless variety contains fewer natural chemicals and enzymes, also known as volatile compounds, that can cause tears and irritation.

In addition, these compounds continue to reduce after they are harvested, compared to regular onions where these compounds increase over time, which means that they become more tearless over time.

Woolworths noted that the tearless onions were developed over decades using natural methods, including cross-breeding existing onion varieties, and they taste less pungent yet slightly sweeter than regular brown onions.