Onions

Diced, chopped or sliced, onions bring delicious bite to just about anything you can cook. Learn more about onions and their different types so you can make informed purchases for your operation. Discover everything you need to know to make the right onion purchasing decisions. Find information on onion varieties and flavors, onion sizing and grades, and onion storage and handling.

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Popular Onion Varieties

Variety	Primary Applications and Attributes
Yellow	All-purpose and most popular. The majority of the U.S. onion crop is yellow. The most well-known sweet onions are yellow, including Walla Walla and Vidalia. Cooking brings out this variety's nutty, mellow, often sweet quality when caramelized. Yellow onions can be raw, grilled, sautéed or lightly cooked, caramelized, baked or roasted. Best used for salsas, sauces, soups or broths, burgers, onion blossoms, onion rings and pizzas. Shop Yellow Onions
Red	Popular in foodservice on salads and sandwiches because of their color. Red onions can be raw, grilled or roasted, and are best used for salads, sandwiches, pickled red onions and burgers. Shop Red Onions
White	They are commonly used in white sauces, potato and pasta salads, and in Mexican or Southwest cuisine. Due to the compact nature of their cell structure, white onions do not store quite as long as other varieties. White onions can be raw, grilled, sautéed or lightly cooked, and are best used for salsas, taco toppings, vegetable chutney, sautéed vegetables and stir-fried vegetables. Shop White Onions

Variety

Primary Applications and Attributes

Yellow

All-purpose and most popular. The majority of the U.S. onion crop is yellow. The most well-known sweet onions are yellow, including Walla Walla and Vidalia. Cooking brings out this variety's nutty, mellow, often sweet quality when caramelized. Yellow onions can be raw, grilled, sautéed or lightly cooked, caramelized, baked or roasted. Best used for salsas, sauces, soups or broths, burgers, onion blossoms, onion rings and pizzas.

Shop Yellow Onions

Red

Popular in foodservice on salads and sandwiches because of their color. Red onions can be raw, grilled or roasted, and are best used for salads, sandwiches, pickled red onions and burgers.

Shop Red Onions

White

They are commonly used in white sauces, potato and pasta salads, and in Mexican or Southwest cuisine. Due to the compact nature of their cell structure, white onions do not store quite as long as other varieties. White onions can be raw, grilled, sautéed or lightly cooked, and are best used for salsas, taco toppings, vegetable chutney, sautéed vegetables and stir-fried vegetables.

Shop White Onions

Onion Sizes

Things you should know:

Sizing applies to all grades and varieties

Predominant size in foodservice is jumbo. Small sizes are usually packaged and sold for retail

Colossal and Super Colossal are used for onion blossoms

Onions are mainly an ingredient produce item. Only Colossals and Super Colossals are menued as appetizers, because of their size and sweetness

Onion Grades

As with other produce, onion grades are based on the product's appearance, including internal and external defects. The typical grades for onions are U.S. No. 1 and U.S. No. 2.

U.S. No. 1 Must Meet the Following Requirements:

Similar varietal characteristics, except color when designated as a specialty or mixed pack

Mature, fairly firm and fairly well-shaped

Free from decay, wet sunscald, doubles, bottlenecks and scallions

Free from damage caused by seedstems, splits, tops, roots, dry sunken areas, sunburn, sprouts, freezing, peeling, cracked fleshy scales, watery scales, dirt or staining, foreign matter, mechanical, translucent scales, disease, insects and other means

Unless otherwise specified, the diameter should be not less than 1-1/2 inches; yellow, brown or red onions should have 40 percent or more, and white onions should have 30 percent or more, by weight, of the onions in any lot 2 inches or larger in diameter

When a percentage of the onions is specified, to be of any certain size or larger, no part of any tolerance should be allowed to reduce the specified percentage. But individual packages in a lot may have as much as 25 percentage points less than the percentage specified, except that individual packages containing 10 pounds or less should have no requirements as to percentage of a certain size or larger, provided that any lot, regardless of package size, should average within the percentage specified

U.S. No. 2 Must Meet the Following Requirements:

One type, except when designated as a specialty or mixed pack

Mature, and not soft or spongy

Free from decay, wet sunscald and scallions

Free from serious damage caused by watery scales, dirt or staining, foreign matter, seedstems, sprouts, mechanical, dry sunken areas, disease, freezing, insects and other means

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture

Onion Storage and Handling

Proper storing and handling are just as important as the quality of the pack, so that the product can be preserved as long as possible. Consider the following when storing onions: