Why marketing to ‘pure vegetarians’ landed this Indian delivery giant in a pickle

A popular food delivery app in India has sparked controversy, and an abrupt retreat, after launching an initiative to attract vegetarian customers.

A popular food delivery app in India has sparked controversy, and an abrupt retreat, after launching an initiative to attract vegetarian customers. Earlier this week, Zomato announced plans to introduce a curation of restaurants that serve only “pure vegetarian food.” This list “will exclude all restaurants which serve any non-veg food item,” the company’s founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal said on X on Tuesday. “Non-veg,” short for “non-vegetarian,” refers to any food that contains meat, poultry or seafood. “India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world,” Goyal wrote on X, adding that many of them are “very particular” about how their food is cooked and handled. In order to further cater to these strict dietary preferences, their food would be delivered by a “dedicated pure veg fleet.” These riders would wear new green uniforms, as opposed to the red ones worn by the rest of the delivery workers, the company said.