Fast food

Fast food was created as a commercial strategy to accommodate large numbers of busy commuters, travelers and wage workers.

[5] Fast-food consumption has been linked to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, colorectal cancer, obesity, high cholesterol, insulin resistance conditions and depression.

This also ensured that customers with strictly limited time (a commuter stopping to procure dinner to bring home to their family, for example, or an hourly laborer on a short lunch break) were not inconvenienced by waiting for their food to be cooked on-the-spot (as is expected from a traditional "sit down" restaurant).

[14] In the mornings, bread soaked in wine was eaten as a quick snack and cooked vegetables and stews later in popina, a simple type of eating establishment.

[17] During the Middle Ages, large towns and major urban areas such as London and Paris supported numerous vendors that sold dishes such as pies, pasties, flans, waffles, wafers, pancakes and cooked meats.

[18] In areas with access to coastal or tidal waters, 'fast food' frequently included local shellfish or seafood, such as oysters or, as in London, eels.

[20] A blue plaque at Oldham's Tommyfield Market marks the origin of the fish and chip shop and fast food industries.

[22] Harry Ramsden's fast food restaurant chain opened its first fish and chip shop in Guiseley, West Yorkshire in 1928.

[28] Worries of an obesity epidemic and its related illnesses have inspired many local government officials in the United States to propose to limit or regulate fast-food restaurants.

Yet, US adults are unwilling to change their fast food consumption even in the face of rising costs and unemployment characterized by the great recession, suggesting an inelastic demand.

Petrol stations in Australia sell foods such as hot pies, sandwiches, and chocolate bars, which are easy for a customer to access while on their journey.

Traditional street food is available around the world, usually through small and independent vendors operating from a cart, table, portable grill or motor vehicle.

Common examples include Vietnamese rice soup vendors, Middle Eastern falafel stands, New York City hot dog carts, and taco trucks.

Commonly, street vendors provide a colorful and varying range of options designed to captivate passers-by and attract as much attention as possible quickly.

Multiple street vendors may specialize in specific types of food; typically, they are characteristic of a given cultural or ethnic tradition depending on the locale.

In most fast food operations, menu items are generally made from processed ingredients prepared at a central supply facility and then shipped to individual outlets where they are reheated, cooked (usually by microwave or deep frying) or assembled in a short amount of time.

Because of commercial emphasis on quickness, uniformity and low cost, fast food products are often made with ingredients formulated to achieve a certain flavor or consistency and to preserve freshness.

A form of fast food created in Japan (where bentō is the Japanese variety of fast food), sushi is normally cold sticky rice flavored with a sweet rice vinegar and served with some topping (often fish), or, as in the most popular kind in the West, rolled in nori (dried green laver) with filling.

A Dutch fast food meal often consists of a portion of french fries (called friet or patat) with a sauce and a meat product.

[45] A 2021 report from the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity indicated that fast-food restaurants spent about $318 million on Spanish-language TV channels.

Essentially, in order to successfully launch this American brand in a foreign country, McDonald's interpreted the local interests of consumers in Moscow by promoting the origins of the produce used in the restaurant.

[56] Subway is one of the fastest growing franchises in the world with approximately 39,129 restaurants in 90 countries as of May 2009,[57] the first non-US location opening in December 1984 in Bahrain.

A study done in the city of Jeddah has shown that current fast-food habits are related to the increase of overweight and obesity among adolescents in Saudi Arabia.

[77] In 2014, the World Health Organization published a study which claims that deregulated food markets are largely to blame for the obesity crisis, and suggested tighter regulations to reverse the trend.

[78] In the United States, local governments are restricting fast-food chains by limiting the number of restaurants found in certain geographical areas.

[80] Although trying to overcome criticism through healthy options on fast-food menus, Marion Nestle, who serves as the chair of New York University's Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, suggests that fast-food industries intentionally market unhealthy foods to children through advertising options and therefore create customers for life.

[81] Despite so much popularity, fast foods and fast-food chains have adverse impacts not only on the job and social skills, but on the health and academic performance of students.

[82] The researcher who wrote Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, highlights this fact, arguing that this is not only a financial but also a psychological bait, in that the students are lured towards this early employment opportunity knowing little that the time spent on this no-skill-learning job is wasted.

[84] Kelly Brownwell of The Atlantic has further supported this argument that Burger King and McDonald's adopted another dangerous practice for marketing to innocent children.

They are of the view that other social factors such as television-watching, video games and playing were controlled to assess the real impacts of fast foods.