McDonald's to open vegetarian-only restaurants in India

McDonald's Corp, the fast food chain that brought the hamburger to the world, is opening what may be its first vegetarian-only restaurants. The world's biggest hamburger chain said in a statement that the locations in India will serve only vegetarian food because of customer preferences in the region. Already, McDonald's said its restaurants in India do not sell beef or pork, and that the kitchens are separated into sections for cooking vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. They have menu items that cater to local tastes, such as the Maharaja Mac, which is a Big Mac made with chicken patties instead of beef. It also offers a McAloo Tikki, a burger made with a spicy breaded potato patty, red onions, tomatoes and a "special vegetable sauce." The chain offers such localized options in countries around the world. The opening of the vegetarian-only restaurants "further speaks to McDonald's efforts to cater to local tastes," the Illinois-based company said, adding the restaurants will be in areas that are popular pilgrimage destinations. McDonald's said the new restaurants are the only ones it's aware of that will serve only vegetarian food. However, local franchises in India and other regions may already have meatless menus. For religious reasons, beef is not eaten by Hindus, who make up the majority of India's population of about 1.2 billion people. McDonald's has more than 33,500 locations around the world, but only about 250 are in India. As McDonald's faces rising competition and a volatile world economy, it has said it will focus on offering more food options that cater to local tastes in order to grow sales In 2002, McDonald's agreed to donate $10 million to Hindu and other groups in the US to settle lawsuits that accused the chain of mislabeling French-fries and hash browns as vegetarian. The vegetable oil used to prepare the fries and hash browns had contained traces of beef for flavoring purposes. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter