Whole Peeled Onions Archives

The Power of a Whole Peeled Onion Program

Everyone hates peeling onions, but everyone loves eating them. For a long time, welcoming your onion order to your kitchen by sitting down and peeling through the pain was just part of life. Not anymore. At Gills Onions, we’ve pioneered a better way to bring onions from the field to your kitchen. It’s called whole peeled onions, and here’s why you should make the change.

1. Stop Wasting Time and Start Cooking

Prepping a raw bulk onion order is one of the most labor-intensive tasks in the kitchen. Based on figures from the United States Department of Agriculture, one 50 lb sack can contain about 200 raw onions. Peeling and washing each of those onions—not to mention the time it takes to clean up afterwards—can consume a large portion of the workday. And all that time spent peeling creates an opportunity for dangerous knife injuries. Cuts, lacerations, and punctures are the number one most common injury in commercial kitchens. Whole peeled onions eliminate these problems. Each onion arrives ready to be sliced, diced, or slivered into your next great meal, saving time and keeping workers safe.

2. Keep Your Kitchen Clean

Unpeeled raw onions can bring unsanitary dirt and bacteria into your kitchen. Extensive testing shows that bulk onions can contain 100 to 1000 times more bacteria, yeasts, and molds than Gills Whole Peeled Onions. Once those contaminants are in your kitchen space, it’s easy for them to spread to other surfaces and foods, and it’s difficult for you to stop them.

Whole peeled onions offer a more hygienic alternative. Every Gills onion goes through an HACCP-approved cleaning process with chlorinated water, metal detection, and strict temperature controls. Our in-house laboratory verifies the cleanliness of each onion and piece of equipment. This allows us to guarantee that when you receive a shipment of our whole peeled onions, you are welcoming the safest possible product into your kitchen.

3. Quality You Can Trust

Gills Whole Peeled Onions have the longest shelf life in the industry and are always preservative-free. Our signature prescription for seed selection and growing programs create onions with less water in the cell structure than the typical raw onion. Less water means the onion stays fresh longer and resists the natural chemical breakdowns that result in spoiling.

4. Eliminate Waste and Save Money

More than 400 loads of sack onions are shipped and consumed daily in the United States. One in every three of those loads is onion waste. That means that one out of every three containers of your bulk onions is trash. By the time you’ve finished prepping, you’ve peeled away a third of your inventory with nothing to show for it. Switching to whole peeled onions guarantees a consistent yield. What you order is what you get — 100 percent usable product of the highest quality onions. Eliminating waste helps your bottom line. On an annual basis, the decision to use whole peeled onions means you will at least come out even cost wise. Many customers find their costs are lower than before, saving them money and resources.

5. Total Traceability

At Gills Onions, we believe in total traceability, all the way back to the seed. For over 35 years, our growers have cultivated the fields of Southern and Central California “The Gill Way,” applying our unique prescription of best practices and conservation techniques to create truly exceptional onions. We grow, harvest, wash, peel, and trim every onion that arrives in your kitchen. Only the best onions become a Gills Whole Peeled Onion.

We are onion experts. It’s what we do, and we do it best. But don’t take our word for it. Our onions speak for themselves.

Ready to see just how much you can save by switching to Whole Peeled Onions? Use our Product Calculator.

Americans love to eat. It’s part of our daily routines and celebrations, and it’s a way to relax and unwind after a long day.

Unfortunately, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 48 million Americans get sick from a foodborne illness each year. That means that 1 in 6 Americans order a special treat from a commercial kitchen and go home with a doggy bag of disease-causing contaminates. Not the night out you were looking for, right?

But there are simple steps you can take to increase commercial kitchen safety, keep your customers and employees safe, and give you peace of mind.

1. Wear Gloves and Wash Hands Frequently

While these steps may seem obvious, they are key to preventing cross-contamination in your kitchen. Remember, even the tiniest amount of bacteria can make a person sick. Provide a dedicated employee hand washing station near the entrance to your kitchen. Require all employees to wash their hands with soap and running water for a minimum of 20 seconds before touching anything else in the kitchen.

Once their hands are washed, employees should wear kitchen gloves anytime they are interacting with food. But, gloves can give employees a false sense of safety. Remind them that gloves must be changed frequently, especially when switching between foods like raw meat, poultry, and prepared food ready to leave the kitchen.

2. Wash Fruits and Vegetables

Even fresh fruits and vegetables that are peeled or skinned before use need to be washed. Otherwise, you risk spreading germs from the outside of the produce to the inside portions that people will consume.

Designate a colander solely for washing fruits and vegetables. It shouldn’t be used for any other foods like raw meats or pastas. Run fruits and vegetables under cool running water and scrub well. You can also use an FDA-approved fruit and vegetable rinse for an extra-thorough cleaning.

3. Be Mindful of Food Storage Temperatures

Separate cold food storage areas should be used for raw meats, produce, and other prepared foods like sauces or dips. Fresh cut vegetables need to be properly stored away in cold storage and never left out at room temperature.

Foods of any kind should never be stored on the floor, and it is helpful to have thermometers to measure temperature in both freezers and refrigerators.

4. Don’t Mess with Shelf Life

Never use old or expired food. If it looks like you shouldn’t use it, don’t. It’s always better to throw out an unused product in foodservice than to risk making someone sick. Clearly label foods to keep track of when items arrive in your kitchen.

5. Use Gills Onions

Gills Onions is committed to setting the standard in food safety. Our priority is protecting the integrity of our product through each step of processing and shipment. Here are a few ways our process and our product can help you increase the safety of your kitchen.

Bulk onions can contain 100 to 1000 times more bacteria, yeasts, and molds than Gills Whole Peeled Onions. Once these contaminants enter your kitchen, it becomes very difficult to get them out. Instead, you can eliminate these germs before they arrive by investing in a fresh, value-added product.

Industry standard practices hard vacuum pack fresh cut products, but this method creates ideal conditions for lactic acid bacterial growth, spoiling the product faster and delivering a sour, fermented smell.

At Gills Onions, we’ve found a better, safer, and cleaner way. We gently pillow pack our onions, leaving some oxygen present in the bag. This prevents water accumulation and the growth of unwanted microorganisms.

And, our onions offer the longest shelf life in the industry.

Ready to try onions the Gills Way? For more information, contact our sales department.

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5 Benefits of Using Whole Peeled Onions