As of 2012, there were 263,944 fast food restaurants in America with a combined revenue of well over $100 billion.
A Gallup poll revealing that 8 in 10 Americans eat fast food at least monthly and half saying they eat it weekly.
But did you know what they serve up and how they manage food as a business?
1. MCDONALD’s is the world’s largest distributor of toys. Now you know why your kids are drawn to their joints. Incidentally they sell 75 burgers every second. And its daily customer traffic is larger than the entire population of UK.
McDonald’s hamburgers don’t really rot. The burgers have very low moisture content, which basically leaves the meat dehydrated.
A 30 oz. McDonald’s sweet tea has as much sugar in it as two Snickers bars.
The McNuggets is apparently a mixture created when the bones and carcass of a leftover chicken are mixed together in a food processor.
2. Did you know that Colonel Sanders was disgusted by KFC’s food after he left the company? He once described the food as “the worst fried chicken I’ve ever seen” and said the gravy was like “wallpaper paste.”
3. Taco Bell has attempted to open stores in Mexico two different times. Their food was labeled as “American Food.”
4. Subway is the largest restaurant chain in the world. There are more Subways in the world than McDonald’s. After receiving complaints that their “footlong” sub was only 11 inches long, Subway released a statement that said, “”With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong, ‘Subway Footlong’ is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway Restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length.”
David DiSalvo, a writer at Forbes, decided to really look into the eggs in popular fast food breakfast sandwiches. What he discovered was that their “eggs” are really a strange concoction that includes eggs and “premium egg blend.” It also includes glycerin, a solvent found in soap and shaving cream, dimethylpolysiloxane, a silicone that can also be found in Silly Putty, and calcium silicate, a sealant used on roofs and concrete.
5. The large fries at Five Guy’s are the most unhealthy fries in America. They have nearly 1,500 calories and 71 grams of fat.
6. About two new Starbucks have opened every day since 1987.
7. Most fast food restaurants don’t list the exact ingredients in their lettuce but many places dust their salads with propylene glycol to keep the leaves crisp. While considered safe for consumption, propylene glycol can be found in antifreeze and sexual lubricants.
8. Despite the addition of some healthy kids’ meal options, less than 1% of all kids’ meal combinations met recommended nutrition standards. In 2012, fast food restaurants spent $4.6 billion in total on all advertising. In fact McDonald’s, spent 2.7 times as much to advertise its products as all fruit, vegetable, bottled water, and milk advertisers combined. In 2012, preschoolers saw 1,023 fast food ads — 2.8 per day. Fast food restaurants continues to target black and Hispanic youth, who face higher risk for obesity and related diseases.
Take action: check out http://www.fastfoodmarketing.org/
Source: Multiple including Huffington post.
