New Delhi | Zomato Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal on Tuesday announced the launch of a "Pure Veg Mode" service to cater to customers who have pure vegetarian dietary preference.

He cited feedback from vegetarian customers as the reason for the launch of the new service and informed that the online food delivery platform is also introducing a "Pure Veg Fleet" in India for customers who follow a 100 per cent vegetarian diet.

In a series of posts on X, formerly Twitter, Goyal said India has the highest percentage of vegetarians globally, and these new features were launched based on their feedback.

"India has the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world, and one of the most important feedback we've gotten from them is that they are very particular about how their food is cooked, and how their food is handled.

"To solve their dietary preferences, we are today launching a "Pure Veg Mode" along with a "Pure Veg Fleet" on Zomato, for customers who have a 100 per cent vegetarian dietary preference," the Zomato CEO said.

Goyal shared that "Pure Veg Mode" includes a selection of restaurants serving exclusively vegetarian food, excluding any establishments offering non-vegetarian items. He clarified that this mode doesn't cater to or exclude any religious or political preferences.

However, the Zomato CEO was slammed by a section of users online for the move.

"Please note that this Pure Veg Mode, or the Pure Veg Fleet doesn't serve or alienate any religious, or political preference," he said.

He informed that Zomato's Pure Veg Fleet will use green delivery boxes instead of the standard red ones.

Goyal also clarified that these delivery persons will exclusively deliver orders from pure vegetarian restaurants and won't handle any non-vegetarian meals. Additionally, they won't enter non-vegetarian restaurants while carrying the green delivery box.

"Our dedicated Pure Veg Fleet will only serve orders from these pure veg restaurants. This means that a non-veg meal, or even a veg meal served by a non-veg restaurant will never go inside the green delivery box meant for our Pure Veg Fleet," Goyal said.