Introduction
Fastfood refers to food prepared and served at a quick rate at different food outlets called fast-food restaurants. Fastfood has built multi-billion dollar industries that continue to expand worldwide. Fast-food restaurants offer quick meals with minimal service. In anticipation of the bulk of customers especially during peak hours, food is cooked beforehand in bulk and kept in containers that keep the heat or reheated as the orders come in. Fast-food restaurants are usually restaurant chains expanding to different regions around the worlds through franchising. Franchise restaurants operate in a similar fashion following standards imposed by the company that developed the restaurant. There are also fast-food kiosks offering cooked food accessible to any person. In the perspective of business, operating a fast-food restaurant requires a smaller capital when compared to other forms of investment in the food industry. In places where there are no health codes or existing health codes are barely implemented, starting a fast-food business is also an easy task. The result is the proliferation of different types and scale of fast-food businesses around the world. The popularity of fastfood is so immense that it forms part of the culture of several nations, particularly North America, Latin and South America, Middle East and Asia. (Jakle and Scullie, 1999)
Due to the nature of the operation of fast-food restaurants, the industry has been linked to an array of issues ranging from health to environmental problems. Health and social issues cover the growing international concern over obesity and the spread of diseases due to the lack of safety standards in some sectors of the fast-food industry. Environmental issues revolve around the waste that fast-food restaurants create starting from food preparation to food packaging usually in plastic, Styrofoam and other synthetic products, which are not biodegradable. In response to these issues, the fast-food industry is trying to change peoples’ view of the industry by using the term ‘quick service restaurants’ instead of ‘fast-food restaurant’. Nevertheless, to date these restaurants remain popularly known as fast-food restaurants.
Fastfood in History
Surprisingly, fastfood formed part of the traditional culinary practices of different cultures, although these existed as family businesses and in a less formal manner than its presence today. In ancient Rome, traders sold bread, olives and other food items in stands. In Eastern Asia such as China, Japan and Korea noodle shops were put-up in strategic areas to provide accessible and affordable food to the public. In the Middle East, there were food stalls selling falafel and flat bread.(Luxenberg, 1985)
In modern history, fastfood is associated with the concurrent history of hamburger in America because the earliest fast-food restaurants that emerged sold hamburger. In 1921, White Castle owned by an American opened the first fast-food restaurant that sold hamburgers priced at five cents per piece. After its popularity the increased, the company devised ways of increasing the cooking time of its hamburger patties by making five holes in the patties to speed-up cooking time. The success of white castle resulted to the rise in competitors. (Hogan, 1997) McDonalds, a restaurant most popularly associated with fastfood, opened in 1948 through the introduction of a hotdog stand in California and then expanded into chicken, hamburgers, fries, milkshakes and fries. At present, McDonalds is an internationally known company offering its products and services in almost all countries. (Kroc, 1977) In 1972, another innovation was introduced into the fast-food industry by the practice developed by Wendy’s of selling food through a drive-through. This enabled car owners to buy food without leaving their cars and looking for a parking lot. (Schlosser, 2001) These fast-food restaurants expressed the intrinsic characteristics of the fast-food business, speedy meal preparation, widespread distribution and fast or convenient service.
Fastfood Dynamics
Fastfood needs to be prepared and served in a quick way so that fast-food owners have to device plans of lessening the cooking time. Due to this requirement, fastfood is highly processed and made on an industrial scale. Hamburger patties, buns and fries are made in food processing factories by using machines that treat the food, cut or shape it into uniform products and utilizing food extenders or other ingredients intended to make the products last since large batches of food are bought and stored by fast-food warehouses and distributed to the different franchises. After the food processing stage, fastfood ingredients or items are packed in cartons, plastic wrapping or any other cost minimizing packaging. (Tennyson, 1993)
Fastfood ingredients are prepared without concern for the nutritional value of the food. The method of cooking adds calories to the already loaded ingredients. Fries, chicken, onion rings and other similar fastfood are deep-fried in shortening or partially hydrogenated oils susceptible to absorbing trans fats harmful to the heart. Fastfood meals also contain high glycemic load.
Despite the high fat and high sugar content of fastfood it still remains to have a large popular following. The popularity is attributed to two major reasons. One is economies of scale. Since fast-food restaurants purchase and prepare food in bulk, they are able to offer fastfood at a lower price. Another is accessibility and convenience that fast-food restaurants offer to hungry people not willing to wait for a relatively long time for food.
Environmental Impact of Fastfood
Obesity in America
In the United States, a compelling impact of fastfood is the rise in the number of obese cases particularly in children brought up in a culinary culture of fasffood. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2001) about 2 out of 3 adults in the United States are overweight or obese. Roughly, 129.6 million people are at risk of developing different types of diseases that occur with obesity. The CDC estimates that 15 percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 are overweight which almost doubles the rate two decades ago. An additional 15 percent of children and 14.9 percent of adolescents were at risk for overweight and obesity by the end of the year 2000 (Deusinger 2003). Only 3 percent of all Americans meet at least four of the five federal Food Guide Pyramid recommendations of the intake of grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meats while less than one-third of all Americans meet the federal recommendations to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least five days a week (US Food and Drug Administration, 2004). Furthermore, 40 percent of adults engage in no leisure time physical activity at all. Aside from this, it is also reported that obesity is becoming one of the most pressing and avoidable health problems in the world next to smoking (World Health Organization, 1998). The National Institute for Health has outlined some grim statistics of the obesity problem in the United States by reporting that less than half of US adults have a healthy weight.
The prevalence of obesity has steadily increased over the years regardless of gender, age, or socio-cultural background. From 1960 to 2000, the pervasiveness of obesity more than doubled with most of this rise happening in the past 20 years (Wadden, 2003). From 1988 to 2000, the incidence of extreme obesity increased from 2.9 to 4.7 percent.
Obese individuals have a 50 to 100 percent increased risk of death from all causes compared with normal rate individuals (US National Institute of Health, 1998). Life expectancy of a modern obese person can be shortened by 2 to 5 years. As of 2004, it is reported that the total economic cost of obesity in the United States is about US7 billion per year, including more than US billion in avoidable medical costs (US Food and Drug Administration, 2004).
Population Affected by Obesity
Statistics show that obesity, one cause of which is excessive fastfood intake, has an impact on all sorts of people regardless of age, gender, race or culture, and state location although in varying degrees. In terms of age, the data issued by the CDC showed that both adults and children have significant obesity rate. In terms of gender, race and culture, the data issued by the US Food and Drug Administration (2004) showed that a higher obesity rate occurs among Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic black adolescents compared to the rate for non-Hispanic white adolescents between the age of twelve and nineteen. In adults, the group with the highest obesity rate are non-Hispanic black women beyond 40 years of age.
Determinants of Fastfood Intake Relating to Obesity Rates
Understanding the differences in obesity rate requires a look into the demographic determinants of fastfood intake. Jekanowski, Binkley and Eales (2001), showed that price, income and other demographic characteristics influence the prevalence of fastfood intake. Their research suggests that the increase in fastfood consumption is a result of the rampant offers of food supply convenience. This implied that fastfood consumers increase due to a motivation, provided by the relative cheapness of fastfood in terms of price, taste and time. Ekuland and Watson (1991) showed that the rate of fastfood consumption is related to household opportunity cost since the research showed that it is more costly in terms of time and money to prepare ethnic food relative to fast-food so that more households patronize fast-food restaurants. The earlier study by McCracken and Brandt (1987) showed that household income, value given to time, size and composition are the important determinants of household expenditures on food consumed outside of the home.
In these researches, the primary factor affecting fastfood consumption is income and income-related factors. The population report on consumer income for 2004 issued by the US Census Bureau (2005) showed that in relating income and race, black and people of Hispanic race earn a relatively lower income relative to white and Asians. Linking this statistic to the researches supports the view of a higher obesity rate among Hispanic and black Americans because they benefit from the low cost motivation for fastfood consumption. In terms of region and income, the same report by the US Census Bureau shows that in the southern regions, the average annual household income is lower than the other regions by as much as ,000 dollars. This implies that there is a higher motivation for fastfood in this region that affects the rate of obesity.
Public Awareness of Obesity
Obesity is not a new health condition but it became an important health issue in the last two decades because of the increasing number of people suffering from obesity attributed to diet and physical activity. It was only in recent years that the government and communities took action to provide information on the disease and encourage community participation in addressing the health issue. In a report issued by Centers for Disease Control (2005), statistics showed that only 19 percent of American schools serve vegetables and fruits in the canteens or vending machines. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2005) Children and adults who continue with this diet are likely to become overweight or obese. This means that information dissemination has a long way to go if obesity and its causes, one of which is frequent and excessive fastfood intake is to be addressed.
Conclusion
Fastfood has an impact on the social behaviour of people and on the community in general because it has become an integral part of popular culinary culture. Fastfood has become controversial because while it offered affordable and convenient food especially to low income households, it is also a leading cause of obesity. The persistence of fastfood and its impact on obesity depends upon the factors that influence social behaviour.
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