Tears of joy…the goggles that are one in the eye for onions

… and half a dozen other gadgets that you never knew you needed

SLICING into a strong-smelling onion can bring a tear to the eye of sensitive cooks everywhere.

But now weeping chefs have finally been offered the invention they have been crying out for – a pair of "onion goggles".

Cookware maker Eddington's, which produces a wide range of products – from a gizmo to remove the seeds from strawberries to a tea bag squeezer – has created the swimming goggle-style glasses, which fit closely over the eyes to keep out the irritant onion vapours.

The goggles, available in both plain white or a stylish pale pink, claim to offer "tear-free chopping" for chefs finding the onion chopping experience a little eye watering.

A foam seal promises to protect eyes from those "irritating onion vapours", while an anti-fog coating on the lenses provides "maximum clarity and eye protection".

And in case the cook needs to chop onions on the move, the £13.50 goggles come in their own easy to carry see-through storage case.

Consumer magazine Which has tested out the product in its latest issue, and gave it a thumbs up, saying it leaves chefs "free to dice onions finely without tears."

The tester came up with just one flaw in the design of the product, pointing out to short-sighted cooks that the goggles "don't work over the top of spectacles".

Former BBC Masterchef winner Gerry Goldwyre, who now runs a private dining restaurant from his water tower home in Eskbank, welcomed the invention.

He said: "My eyes suffer terribly – every time I chop onions, I look like a Scot coming out of Murrayfield after a beating by England. I've tried all of the old wives tales to no effect. If they have finally nailed the problem with this invention, I would be very impressed."

He added: "I would love to see my customers' faces, though, if they were greeted at the door by a madman in a huge pair of goggles."

Kevin Sutherland, sous chef at the Michelin-starred Number One Restaurant in Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel, said: "Strong onions do make your eyes run, even when you're used to them, but I think I'd get a few laughs if I turned up to work wearing goggles. I'm not sure they're something that will take off in professional kitchens."

Sutherland, a former winner of the Scottish Food Scholarship, added: "If you switch on American TV, you see all these gadgets most of them would be no use at all.

"There are certain things which are actually a great help, such as a machine we have to take the zest of citrus fruit – and it saves us a lot of time – but most of the things on the market are useless."

Vicki Falls, at Pots and Pans cookware shop in St Andrews, said Eddington's would have no problems marketing their product to gadget-keen cooks.

She said: "We do sell a metal bar which helps people get the smell of onions off their hands and that is very popular, so I think the goggles would be too."

A helping hand – or a waste of space?

BANANA guards are curved plastic containers which keep bananas from becoming bruised in lunchboxes or bags. Though this popular gadget appears to be a rigid shape, the maker claims 90 per cent of bananas of various shapes or curvature can fit comfortably inside.

• Milk frothers were invented to give coffee lovers the chance to enjoy a more authentic cappuccino or latte in the comfort of their own homes.

• Special forks to spear each end of a corn on the cob ensure the eater can chew from one end of the cob to the other.

• When a regular knife just won't cut it, the three-in-one coring, slicing and peeling gadget allows fruit lovers to get straight to the heart of a pineapple.

• The mango splitter is claimed to remove the flesh from the stone quickly and easily.

• A step on from the more established garlic press, a garlic peeler takes the outer skin off garlic cloves without the cook having to touch the odorous vegetable.