Questions
Asked and answered
The questions every chef, buyer and procurement team asks before the first sample, answered plainly, with the numbers.
- What is ready-to-use cooked onion?
- Ready-to-use cooked onion is Spanish onion that has been peeled, cut and steam-cooked inside a sealed long-life pouch. The pouch is opened and the onion goes straight into the dish. There is no peeling, chopping, frying or draining left to do, and one kilogram in the bag is one kilogram in the recipe.
- How long does it keep, and does it need refrigeration?
- Over 18 months at room temperature, unopened. It needs no refrigeration and no freezer at any point before opening, because the onion is sterilised by heat inside the sealed pouch. Only the pre-fried frozen line is a chilled-chain product.
- Is it allergen-free?
- Yes. The standard lines contain one ingredient: Spanish onion. There is no gluten, soy, dairy, nut, egg, seafood or celery content in any line, so there are no allergens to declare.
- What is the yield compared with fresh onion?
- 100%. Everything in the pouch is usable food, including the concentrated onion juices, which work as a flavour base for sauces, gravies and stocks. Fresh onion typically loses 20–50% of its weight to peeling, trim and evaporation by the time it leaves the pan; IQF loses weight to thaw purge.
- Which formats can I buy?
- Heat-sealed pouches from 500 g to 5 kg for restaurant and hotel kitchens; aseptic bags from 10 kg to 1000 kg, drums and Pellecon for manufacturers; and custom recipes with added ingredients made to specification.
- What products are in the range?
- Seventeen products across six categories: cooked (extra cooked, cooked, crunchy, reduced), caramelised (golden, standard, dark, dark red), purées (purée, reduced purée, fried purée, paste), specials (red caramelised, pickled, chutney), fried onion, and pre-fried frozen onion.
- Is it certified?
- Every line carries AENOR, Halal, Kosher, FDA and sustainability certification, with full specification sheets and traceability available for procurement teams.
- Can I get a sample?
- Yes. Use the enquiry form with a note of what you cook and roughly how much onion you use each week, and we'll match the right format and cut to your line and send a sample.
- How does the cooking process work?
- The raw cut onion is vacuum-sealed in a high-barrier pouch, then cooked by steam inside a pressurised vessel. The moisture inside the onion does the cooking, the core is held at 121 °C to sterilise it completely, and the pouch is flash-chilled to lock the colour and texture. For the cooked and purée lines that means nothing is added and nothing is lost.
- Who is Cooked Onions for?
- Hotels, cafés, restaurant groups, pubs, QSR chains, food manufacturers and wholesalers across the UK and Ireland: any professional kitchen or production line that buys onion and would rather not spend labour preparing it.
Something we haven’t covered?
Tell us what you cook and how much onion you get through, and we’ll answer with specifics, and a sample if it helps.
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