McDonald's To Open First Vegetarian Branch In Amritsar, India

Where's The Beef? McDonald's First Meat-Free Branch

Should you fancy a Big Mac in Amritsar, it will probably be best to avoid McDonald's, as the chain is to open its first meat-free branch in the Indian city.

Scrubbed from the menu will be all burgers, wraps etc. containing meat, in order to adapt to local diets. The vast proportion of Indians are either Hindu or Muslim, and the best deal for both is to take meat off the menu.

Hindus would presumably not fancy a bun filled with ground-up cow, an animal they believe to be sacred, while Muslims steer clear of pork.

The branch will also be close to the Golden Temple in the city, where it is forbidden to eat meat.

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McDonald's has a relatively low number of branches in the country, and hopes this move will boost its marketability in India

As such, the first meat-free branch of the restaurant will be opened in the holy city.

A spokesman for McDonald's in northern India, Rajesh Kumar Maini, told the AFP news agency: "There is a big opportunity for vegetarian restaurants as many Indians are vegetarian.

"At the moment, India is still a very small market - we just have 271 restaurants in India, and across the world, we have nearly 33,000."

McDonald's plans to instead feature more salads on the menu and more inventions such as the McAloo Tikki burger, a potato-based burger which, according to the BBC, accounts for 25% of McDonald's sales in the country.