The surprising reason Wendy’s is making a beefless burger

Workers In Fast Food Industry Begin Efforts To Unionize Jobs

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 29: A Wendy's sign hangs as protesters, many of them employees at Wendy's fast-food restaurant, demonstrate outside of one of the restaurants to demand higher pay and the right to form a union on November 29, 2012 in New York City. The campaign, called "Fast Food Forward," organized protests at other New York fast-food establishments including McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Domino's. The group seeks to double hourly pay to $15 an hour . (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Photograph by Spencer Platt — Getty Images

A burger without beef? The thought is surely sacrilegious to most Americans.

But Wendy’s is no longer catering to just its home country. With the opening of its first store in Gurgaon, India earlier this month, the company has had to rethink its attachment to the meat that made it famous.

According to a report in Ad Age, Wendy’s is rolling out a menu featuring “spicy aloo crunch burgers and buns sprinkled with chili, turmeric and coriander,” but no beef. That’s because in India, where Hindu is the majority religion, the cow is considered sacred.

Other fast food chains, like McDonald’s, also offer beefless menus, but Wendy’s is differentiating itself in other ways.

According to Ad Age:

Wendy’s debut outpost in Gurgaon, just southwest of New Delhi, has less of a fast food feel and more of a casual dining atmosphere, though prices remain low . . . Meals are served at the table, on proper china plates.