Fast Foods: Chemical Composition and Implications for Health

With changing the scenarios of living style, professional work culture, and daily hectic routine, liberal and global thoughts are impacting our dietary patterns and normal food consumption. So the preference for foods is changing, and foods that can be ready in a shorter time, like “fast foods”, are gaining popularity among the masses, especially young generations. The fast food business has become one of the fastest-growing industries across the globe. This growing trend of fast food consumption has also brought several health-associated issues, like obesity and heart-related problems. Therefore, health-conscious people do like to know the chemical ingredients embedded in fast foods as well as their packaging and storage. For this purpose, the chemistry relating to quality aspects of fast foods, including nutritional, physiological, sensory, flavor, microbiological and packaging, is very important for healthy consumption of fast food for a healthy life. In this book chapter, we have made efforts to bring updated information related to fast food, its chemical composition and implications for human health.

Keywords: Chemical composition, Calorie, Fast food, Indian fast food, Western fast food.