US food giants turn vegetarian in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: Emperor Akbar turned a vegetarian in Ahmedabad. Now, several global fast food giants are turning vegetarian in the city by overhauling their menu to include vegetarian cuisine in the vegetarian heartland of Gujarat.

In Gujarat, global restaurant chains like Subway, KFC and McDonalds are not just experimenting with vegetarian food but also offering Jain food.

In a first, American restaurant franchise Subway has opened a Jain counter at its first all-veg outlet in Ahmedabad at a location with a high density of Jain population. "We carried out a survey in Gujarat and sent a proposal to the US HQ to open an all-veg outlet with a pure Jain counter in Ahmedabad. We will now add more vegetarian items on the menu in Gujarat, which is the only state that contributes 60% of the total sales from vegetarian food," said Durlabh Singh, Subway's development agent for Gujarat and Daman-Diu.

The company's first all vegetarian counter was opened at a private university in Punjab recently, after which the restaurant chain decided to experiment with the Jain cuisine for Gujarat. "We plan to open similar outlets in Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Anand, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar soon," said Singh. McDonalds too is working out the logistics of setting up all-vegetarian outlets in the state in a few years.

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