Fast-food restaurant
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.[1]
Arguably, fast-food restaurants originated in the United States with White Castle in 1921.[2] Today, American-founded fast-food chains such as McDonald's (est. 1940) and KFC (est. 1952)[3][4][5][6] are multinational corporations with outlets across the globe.
Variations on the fast-food restaurant concept include fast-casual restaurants and catering trucks. Fast-casual restaurants have higher sit-in ratios, offering a hybrid between counter-service typical at fast-food restaurants and a traditional table service restaurant. Catering trucks (also called food trucks) often park just outside worksites and are popular with factory workers.
Technology
To make quick service possible and to ensure accuracy and security, many fast-food restaurants have incorporated hospitality point of sale systems. This makes it possible for kitchen crew people to view orders placed at the front counter or drive through in real time. Wireless systems allow orders placed at drive through speakers to be taken by cashiers and cooks. Drive through and walk through configurations will allow orders to be taken at one register and paid at another. Modern point of sale systems can operate on computer networks using a variety of software programs. Sales records can be generated and remote access to computer reports can be given to corporate offices, managers, troubleshooters, and other authorized personnel.
Food service chains partner with food equipment manufacturers to design highly specialized restaurant equipment, often incorporating heat sensors, timers, and other electronic controls into the design. Collaborative design techniques, such as rapid visualization and computer-aided design of restaurant kitchens are now being used to establish equipment specifications that are consistent with restaurant operating and merchandising requirements.[14]
Trends
Health concerns
Some of the large fast-food chains are beginning to incorporate healthier alternatives in their menu, e.g., white meat, snack wraps, salads, and fresh fruit. However, some people see these moves as a tokenistic and commercial measure, rather than an appropriate reaction to ethical concerns about the world ecology and people's health. McDonald's announced that in March 2006, the chain would include nutritional information on the packaging of all of its products.[33]
In September and October 2000, during the Starlink corn recalls, up to $50 million worth of corn-based foods were recalled from restaurants as well as supermarkets. The products contained Starlink genetically modified corn that was not approved for human consumption.[34] It was the first-ever recall of a genetically modified food.[35][36] The environmental group Friends of the Earth that had first detected the contaminated shells was critical of the FDA for not doing its own job.
Fast food is commonly blamed for the obesity epidemic in the United States today.[37] 60% of Americans today are either overweight or obese.[38] With obesity especially being seen among children, places like McDonald's and other fast-food restaurants take the majority of the blame.[37] 34% of children and adolescents consume fast food on any given day, while 80% of children claim that McDonald's is their favorite place to eat at.[38] The number of children and adolescents as well as adults eating out every day is only seen to progress and rise.[38] Research concludes that children and adolescents ranging from twelve to nineteen years old consume twice as many calories from fast-food restaurants than children ranging from two to eleven years old.[38]
The FDA found that trans fats raises the amount of cholesterol in blood, which raises the chance of developing heart disease which is known as one of the leading causes of death in the U.S.[38] In a recent study, it was found that 11 out of 25 restaurants failed after tests on the use of antibiotics as well.[38] Antibiotic-resistant infections affect at least 2 million Americans each year, which will leave at least 23,000 of those people to die.[38]
Criticisms
The fast-food industry is a popular target for critics, from anti-globalization activists like José Bové to vegetarian activist groups such as PETA as well as the workers themselves. A number of fast-food worker strikes occurred in the United States in the 2010s.
In his best-selling 2001 book Fast Food Nation, investigative journalist Eric Schlosser leveled a broad, socioeconomic critique against the fast-food industry, documenting how fast food rose from small, family-run businesses (like the McDonald brothers' burger joint) into large, multinational corporate juggernauts whose economies of scale radically transformed agriculture, meat processing, and labor markets in the late twentieth century. Schlosser argues that while the innovations of the fast-food industry gave Americans more and cheaper dining options, it has come at the price of destroying the environment, economy, and small-town communities of rural America while shielding consumers from the real costs of their convenient meal, both in terms of health and the broader impact of large-scale food production and processing on workers, animals, and land.
The fast-food industry is popular in the United States, the source of most of its innovation, and many major international chains are based there. Seen as symbols of US dominance and perceived cultural imperialism, American fast-food franchises have often been the target of Anti-globalization protests and demonstrations against the US government. In 2005, for example, rioters in Karachi, Pakistan, who were initially angered because of the bombing of a Shiite mosque, destroyed a KFC restaurant.[53]