Tomatoes Are Officially Off The Menu At McDonald's In India. Here's Why
If you're ordering a burger from McDonald's in India, don't expect to see any tomatoes amongst the toppings. The fast food chain is temporarily removing tomatoes from menus at some locations, due to produce shortages and concerns regarding the fruit's quality. The affected stores are in the northern and eastern regions of India.
The country has seen rapid price increases on the produce in the past year, with tomato prices nearly five times higher now than they were in January. The higher prices are a fallout of monsoon rains disrupting tomato production, causing higher price tags on the crops that were able to be produced and sold. While consumers have been battling higher grocery bills, McDonald's store managers claim that the quality of tomatoes is the reason for the temporary removal, rather than pricing.
Ketchup has been unaffected by the tomato removal, however, and some stores are still offering sliced tomatoes. Westlife Foodworld runs 357 McDonald's locations in the western and southern parts of the country, and only between 10-15% of its restaurants had to stop serving the tomatoes temporarily.
Tomatoes are temporarily unavailable
Menu items like the McAloo, Mexican McAloo Tikki, and the Chicken Maharaja Mac are affected by this temporary change and will be served without tomatoes for the foreseeable future.
The Press Trust of India shared a video on Twitter of a paper posted outside of a Delhi McDonald's. The notice stated that the chain was "not able to get adequate quantities of tomatoes which pass our world class stringent quality checks."
VIDEO | Amid steep rise in tomato prices, a McDonald's outlet in Delhi pasted a notice informing the customers about unavailability of tomatoes in its products. pic.twitter.com/Nwc9vpssF4
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 7, 2023
The cost of tomatoes has been a consistent concern for many residents of India. One Twitter user posted, "Even McDonald's is not able to buy tomatoes." Still, fans of the fast food chain were unhappy with the change, with another Twitter user calling it "a new low."
Although tomatoes may be off the menu at some Indian McDonald's locations for now, the change is temporary. As the notice posted at the restaurants states, the fast food chain is "working to get the tomatoes supplies back." In the meantime, make sure you're properly storing your tomatoes to save yourself some money.