If they are soft, I would send them back and ask for a refund, or consider shopping elsewhere.

You could also buy frozen instead; most supermarkets have frozen sliced and diced onions.

I've watched those shopping people at Kroger. They never choose the best whatever they are looking at. They just pick up a pack and throw it in the bag. They have no skin in the game.

If they're just on the edge and not actually rotten, I'd peel off anything that's no good, give them a small dice and freeze them. Ifyou'ree going to cook with them anyway, being frozen won't harm them. But also absolutely let someone know you're consistently getting past prime produce. Instacart/doordash offers no training on how to select produce, and honestly, even the in store employees who process orders for delivery might be people who haven't been trained how to select produce. Even store management might be encouraging them to select less idea packages, since they're insulated from the complaints.

I often find that when I buy a bag of onions or potatoes there’s usually one or more rotten ones

I can't think of anything useful to do with rotten onions except maybe compost them. Tell the delivery service that you received a spoiled product and they will credit you. I have to do this all the time with Instacart. A few weeks ago they gave me a can of beans that had a 2022 best by date.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and provide better results if you just went grocery shopping in person? I apologize if your life situation prevents it, but I certainly know people in person who have groceries delivered because they just don't feel like doing it.

Don't keep them near the potatoes - it makes them spoil quicker.

To answer you actual question, you can separate our the layers, and some interior layers may still be okay. 

Then pieces that have texture issues (hard and brown, or slightly too soft but not actually rotten, like ammonia (yikes!)) can be frozen and used when you make stock/broth. 

Actually rotten parts can only really be thrown  out/composted. 

And I would take a pic on delivery, then call the store/delivery service. You should get a refund easily for the spoiled product. 

Is it possible to refuse the onions at time of delivery? Where I work there is a lady who checks her eggs before we finish the sale at her car. If they're not fresh enough to her liking she refuses them and we take them off.

If you’re ordering through Amazon Fresh, you can get a refund. Just take a picture. They don’t always ask for a picture but I take one just in case. I’ve had rotten avocados, cukes, coconut water leaking everywhere…never denied a refund. I find Fresh to be reasonably priced but you do have to tip, which the delivery people deserve.

I stopped buying onions by the bag because half of them would be ready for the green bin within a day. Buying bulk onions allows me to inspect them and pick out only the good ones.

I think you just have a bad delivery service then. When I get groceries delivered, my onions are normal.

what you describe is not salvageable food. I would complain and demand reimbursement. I’ve been only ordering sweet red onions because they’re the only ones I get that last.

if they’re going but not gone you can dice and freeze or sautee and freeze for later.

Every bag of lemons, onions or avocados has at least one rotten piece, so I never buy that way anymore. I assume it's their way of getting rid of unsellable food.

Store them in a dark and cool place. I store mine in a cardboard box in my pantry. They last for months.

Also when you buy them, it’s best to buy individual ones where you can inspect them. Buy firm ones without marks or blemishes. Do not buy squishy ones

I also live alone and in my grocery delivery I request one yellow onion or one red onion. They are more expensive than the bag of little spanish onions, but large enough to last for a week, and I’ve never gotten a rotten one. I chop mine up and keep it in a plastic tub in the fridge.

In general, fruits and veg in bags is always sus, even shopping in person they’re hard to inspect.

When my onions start to go bad I chop them, lay them flat on wax paper on a cookie sheet and freeze them and put them in a ziplock. I just grab a handful any time I'm lazy!

This is exactly why I don't don't use shopping services.  I would wind up missing items, getting completely different products,  and/or obviously damaged or rotten produce.

A complete crap shoot, with me winding up having to make the trip anyway, to fill in all of the missing bits. Things like one single serving box of frozen spinach,  when I had ordered two large family size bags. I don't really care if my shopper doesn't approve of vegetables,  I'm not feeding them.

Lovely in theory,  but I am very much not looking forward to the day when I'm going to need these services. 

Onions seem to be terrible where we are, no matter where I shop -- I gave up on bags a while ago.

It made me nervous to try to salvage them, so more recently, I stopped buying more than one onion at a time. I'd get one or two home, cook with one, and then a few days later find a weird smell in the pantry and find that second onion I bought deliquescing onion in there.

My hypothesis is that what's happening politically is affecting our agricultural supply chain, and the quality of the food that winds up on the shelves. In my neck of the woods it seems most obvious with onions.

Never trust a delivery person for produce

I mever get produce on delivety.  Only boxed or vacuum packages things. I always get produce myself.

Everytime I see delivery produce they are the worst peoduced you would find in the market.

Return them. They should not be delivering bad anything!

As soon as you notice the issue, go to your grocery delivery app and report a problem. You will probably get a refund for any such issue. I have never had a problem with them refunding my $$.

Go to the store yourself if you can.

If they are in reasonable shape, diced them and freeze them in a ziploc until you need them.

I keep my onions from the food pantry in one of the vegetable drawers in the fridge. Not only will they keep a long time, but they won't make your eyes tear when you cut them. Sometimes they are on the edge of going off. Then when you cut them, tear off the slimey skin part and use the insides. Usually they are still good. Always a help if you are making beans or soup. If you can't use them right away, chop and put them in a jar in the freezer to use the next time you need onions in a recipe.

We stopped getting veggies delivered for this (and other veg disappointments) and now go to the local greengrocers. We still get pantry stuff and things that are prepacked, but fruit and veg we hand pick. Otherwise we found we were just wasting money of shitty produce.

Stop getting delivery from this company, clearly the workers dont care at all

Sometimes when I’m getting to the end of my bag of onions one will be soft - it’s usually just the outer couple of layers, so I just peel those off.

Try cutting open your onion through the poles, not the equator, to see if they can be used before throwing them out.

I don’t think you’re an idiot, but I don’t have an answer either

Do they arrive spoiled, or are you just not getting the shelf life you should?

If it's the latter, I'll throw out another mitigation tip. Buy a pack of nylon stockings and transfer the onions into those, tying a simple knot between each one. Remove any bruised specimens. The hose will allow the onions to let off any ethylene they emit without the gas setting off the others like when they're together in the bag.

Wherever you get your groceries from, write a complaint. I had a similar situation with lettuce, and they reimbursed me. This isn't acceptable.

Cut them up and freeze them immediately. I freeze them in two cup increments.

Send them back

From my experience, the bagged food like onions & potatoes are worse than the bulk version. Onions are more prone to be rotting & potatoes are usually way smaller & also more prone to be rotting. My suggestion would be to ask for 4 or 5 single onions. It will be a bit more expensive, but at least you probably won't need to toss them

Buy the bulk onions, not anything that comes in a bag

Specify what size you want so they look for something better

Same goes for potatoes

Never buy in the bag

Shoppers tend to not pay attention to things when they're picking out products for people - Unless!! Unless unless you put a note for that item that specifies something or gives directions of some kind.

I read about that here on Reddit somewhere I think and I started using the notes section more frequently and it cut down on disappointing delivered/curbside groceries drastically.

I mainly just put very short notes like, "extra large potatoes pls", when buying non-packaged russets, for example. Or for meat I'll specify a preferred weight amount/dimensions as in, "pls look for pork shoulder that can fit in a slow cooker, 3 - 5 lbs, thnx".

Before that, some types of shopped item selections were driving me up the wall lol. Like who selects obviously bad, squishy veggies, wtf? 🤣 The notes stopped all of that nonsense.

Chop them up and freeze in a ziplock bag. I always have frozen onions and celery in the freezer because neither last long fresh.

Great idea! Individual picking could really help avoid those funky onions. Plus, fresher prduce always makes cooking more enjoyable.

Red onions have a shorter shelf life. Yellow should last longer. However if they are not good when you receive them, request a refund.

They sell frozen pre chopped onions. They are usually low cost. This might be a better option than buying the fresh whole onions.

I think it's a problem with onions overall in all stores. I've had best luck lately with white onions. They are very strong, but they last much longer. I just use less so their strong taste doesn't overpower dishes. Yellow or red(my favourite) do not last. I'm convinced it's a supply chain issue. I bet if we bought from local farmers direct, they'd last like they used to.

Frozen diced onions have changed my life and they're not too expensive. You can keep them for months and there's no waste. No teary eyes. You just put them in your pan still frozen. There'll be some water at first but it will evaporate. Try it.

caramelize them and freeze them after doing so.

I won't buy bags. They are always moldy. I buy onions at whole foods because I always get better quality and I hand pick each one. 

We only get grocery delivery for dry/frozen foods. Once a week I walk to my local grocery store to pick out meat and veggies. I check the weekly ad, pick out the meat and veggies on sale, and then plan the delivery around that. I cannot trust fresh stuff to shoppers

You can get sick eating bad onions. Throw them out. Complain to the store and request a refund. Can you order individual onions, instead of a whole bag? That way the shopper would have to notice if each onion picked is good or not.

If you need delivery, don’t order a bag. Order like three or five or however many you think you can use before the next delivery. I’ve asked my partner to not get bagged onions/potatoes/whatever for similar reasons. We end up throwing more out than whatever the savings would be.

Don't get the net bags. Have them pick out some, better odds that way

Do your own shopping?

If the onions are slimy, smell bad, have mold, or are in other ways spoiled, there is not much you can do with them other than complain to the shopping service or store and then compost them or toss them out.

If they are just starting to look a little rough, here are some recipes I love that use up a lot of surplus onions that need to be used fast.

This Balsamic Onion Marmalade makes a great topping for burgers and sandwiches.

Alsatian Onion Tart is kind of like an onion quiche, and makes a great lunch or dinner with a salad. I skip the extra steps with the anchovies because I don’t like them.

Julia Child’s French Onion Soup is delicious and cozy and is 100% worth the effort.

I like to always have a jar of Pickled Red Onions around. They are great for tacos, sandwiches, and for anything where you need a little fresh acidic zip.

You can also just caramelize them and stash them in the freezer until you need them. You can even do it overnight in the crockpot.

I use Walmart+ for my food deliveries and I can tell you that every time I get produce that is less than stellar I call and they refund me for that amount. Quite often they give me a credit also of about $10 or so when I complain that I now have to walk to the store to replace it. Their customer service really is wonderful. But you have to step up and complain and when they get enough complaints they'll do something about it on the store level.

Dark cool room 🤷

A tip for picking out onions at the store:

Take a big wiff. If the onion smells strongly then some membranes got smashed and it's already on the way to mold town. I always feel a bit weird smelling onions at the store but I have not got a bad one in ages with this method. It also works with garlic!

Yes, don’t get grocery delivery, and pick your own onions. TBH that’s the only solution. Once an onion goes bad it’s bad, and trying to cook with it will make the food taste bad

As a poor person I have never considered getting my groceries delivered. I thought only rich people did that

This is why I don't bother with delivery or curbside pickup for groceries. I don't trust the people picking my order. Besides, I enjoy going grocery shopping

Purchase Vidalia Onions from A&M farms in Vidalia Georgia. You can order different size boxes to be delivered in April or May. I still have one onion left because I store them properly. They are really good. Best of luck!

I'm lazy, cook them down and freeze. Portion out for a flavor bomb!

Poor and grocery delivery is crazy. Go get it yourself

If you are poor, don't get your groceries delivered but go to the supermarket and pick a good bag of onions yourself, and save the delivery costs....