NEW DELHI: Some Subway outlets in India are no longer serving tomatoes in their dishes, including sandwiches and salads, due to 'quality problems'.
This is the latest move by a foreign brand as prices of the kitchen staple have soared nearly 400 per cent to record highs in the country."Temporary unavailability of TOMATOES," read a notice at a Subway outlet in one of the the Delhi airport terminals.
The restaurant mentioned that it could not get enough supply that passed its 'quality checks'."We're ever committed to serve you the best food with the best of ingredients.
Despite our best efforts, we are nnot able to get adequate quantities of tomatoes which pass our world class stringent quality checks.
Hence for the time being we are forced to serve you products without tomatoes," it said.
"We are working to get the tomatoes supplies back," the note added.
At least two outlets in New Delhi, one in Uttar Pradesh and one in Chennai have stopped adding tomatoes in their dishes."It's very expensive," a Subway store employee said.With the rise in price of tomotoes, several households across the country switched to puree.According to checks of food ordering apps and calls made to stores, many Indian outlets are still offering tomatoes.Everstone Group's Culinary Brands, which has the master franchisee for some 200 of India's 800 Subway and also manages the supply chain for all of them, did not respond to a request for comment.Two weeks ago McDonald's dropped tomatoes from their burgers as well as wraps in many parts of India citing to quality issues.On Saturday, tomatoes were retailing for about Rs 168/kg in New Delhi.The government blames the higher prices of tomatoes on a lean production season as monsoon rains disrupt transport and distribution.
In recent weeks, it organised mobile vans to supply tomatoes at cheaper rates.Tomato price is expected to come down with the increase in arrival of new crop from Nasik, Naryangoan and Aurangabad belt in Maharashtra and also from Madhya Pradesh, the Centre told the Rajya Sabha on Friday.Global restaurant chains like Domino's and KFC are also launching lower-priced products in India, where consumers have cut spending due to high inflation.
Domino's is aggressively promoting a 60-cent seven-inch pizza, the brand's cheapest worldwide, in the country.- With agency inputs