The history of fast food

No matter how much healthy food lovers criticize McDonald’s, no matter how harmful hamburgers and coke are, people will eat fast food. Let us take a brief excursion into the history of fast food.

The history of fast food trace its roots to ancient times. Something similar to the modern fast food originated in ancient Rome. The ancient Greeks used a special term “Thermopolium” to define this kind of food. Fast food in the ancient Rome looked like a great number of open-air markets where enterprising vendors were selling a variety of foods. It is analogous to modern food-courts. People sold only cheap and popular hot food on such markets. First of all, it was hot bread, meat, peas, and various types of baking. In addition, people in ancient Rome made a dish that is very similar to the modern hamburger. It was a flat cake made from beef that was mixed with nuts and always eaten with bread. Different cakes of yeast dough, greased with olive oil were very popular. Sometimes they were used like plates, where people put various other dishes. Does it remind you something? It is true that a well-known and favorite Italian pizza appeared from these flat cakes many centuries later. The relics of junk food markets that were popular in ancient Rome preserved to our times. For example, in Pompeii. The Romans also introduced such kind of services as food delivery to your home. Is strange but true. Today, after more than a thousand years, such services enjoyed great popularity again.

Currently, perhaps the most popular food in America is fast food. The famous McDonald’s appeared here, who, regardless of the situation in the country, keep enjoying constant popularity. Moreover, in many countries, America is associated with fast food.

The history of the American fast food began in 1912, when the company “Horn & Hardart” opened the first fast-food restaurant called “Automat” (http://www.theautomat.net/). Although the first fast food restaurant was opened in Philadelphia for more than ten years earlier, only in New York this type of restaurants acquired enormous popularity and made a revolution in the field of nutrition. Moreover, the fast-food restaurant in New York quickly became one of the main places of interest in the city.

Later on, in 1919, a company “A&W Root Beer” opened fast-food restaurants. Thus, new restaurants served by real people appeared throughout the world. They replaced “Automat” machines. Then, “White Castle” Company opened their first restaurant in 1921. The hamburger restaurant chain “White Castle” is famous for their “sliders”, square burgers that quickly won all hearts and stomachs of consumers. The car fast food service became popular in 40-s as well as waiters on roller skates.

In 1948, the McDonald brothers opened fast food restaurant in San Bernardino. This restaurant lead off the world-famous McDonald’s fast food chain. It is popular in more than 120 countries around the world.

Just as any other product, fast food products require special packaging. Once the paper has become not a luxury, but a means used for commercial purposes, people began to wrap food with paper. This was the period of early industrialization in the late XVIII - early XIX centuries.

Paper bags that are familiar to us appeared only in the mid-twentieth century, but they looked differently and were produced from a different paper. The first package of paper looked like a simple kite or roll. Also, the paper still remains the most hygienic packaging for the products, but in our days people create paper bags of different shapes and sizes.

Today, paper bags for fast food products not only prevent food from the effects of the environment and humans, but also from the possibility of getting dirty when eating or delivering food.

21st century also brought a new trend. Society increasingly begins to wonder about the quality of the consumed food. Of course, fast food is not dead, and surely will not die for a very long time. However, the Slow Food organization, which was founded in 1986 in Italy as a reaction to the great development of fast-food.  This organization has already gained a lot of followers (approximately 100 000 people in more than 150 countries). This organization strives to achieve biodiversity, nutrition awareness of people and providing a direct link between producers and food consumers.

The movement “Slow Food” appeared in Italy in 1989 in response to the growing cult of fast food and the increasing pace of life. It was a reaction to the blurring of local traditions of food and loss of interest of people to what they eat, where and how the products bring our gastronomic choices affect the world around us.

The reasons for the popularity of fast food

The advantage of these dishes is that you can eat it quickly since it is cooked fast, and, of course, cheap price (since you do not need to give tips for the waiters). On the one hand, it resonates with consumers (especially in large cities with a quick pace of life). On the other hand, this food is very technologically, enabling fast food chains to develop rapidly. aggressive advertising in different media also plays a great role.

What are the effects on our health?

Precooked food, widely used in the fast food restaurants, as well as other food produced at factories, may contain various food additives. In most cases, the content of these additives is strictly controlled and they are not harmful for our health. The danger of fast food may be in its excess consumption, which may lead to overweight.

Of course, due to the excess number of writing assignments at the University, dissertations, research papers and essays, students always do not have enough time to pay attention to “Slow Food” and opt for “Fast Food”. If you have a great number of homework and still want to be healthy, do not waste your energy on sleepless nights trying to write or edit a paper. Read more about professional writing and editing services and get a helping hand. Our editors will correct your paper or essay to perfection!

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