Friday, April 26, 2013

Fast Food Scandals




McDonald's Serves the Latest Food Scandal

McDonald’s has committed another food scandal. In a CCIV undercover report, an unappetizing report of a McDonald’s branch in Sanlitun Vilaage South was featured.
That branch served grubby food such as cheese which stood in the sun for too long or hamburger meat that had fallen to the floor which was picked up, brushed and then served to costumers.
A consequence is now, that the Sanlitun location is closed/ has been shut down temporarily.

KFC fall into Food Scandal in China

The soya-bean milk sold by KFC was made of milk powder
The KFC staff admitted that the soya-bean milk which the company sells isn’t made of soya-bean, but that the drink s made with milk powder sold by the Dragon King Company. This fake soya milk made with the powder is sold in all the Chinese cities except Beijing.
To justify, the KFC staffs say that they never affirmed that that soya-bean milk is made from real soya.                                  
Media report said that the cost of KFC soya-bean milk was only 10% of their selling price but KFC answer that they selling products of high quality for suitable prices.

International fast food chains involved in Chinas CHICKEN-SCANDAL

The two international fast food chains McDonalds and KFC from the USA, Japan and from Taiwan are involved in the scandal.
The scandal consist of the fact that 2 chicken furnishers of 2 big fast food chains feed their chicken with excessive hormones and 18 different types of antibiotics with the intent that they grew up faster (from 30 grams to 3,5kg into 40days).
China is the biggest market for the fast food industry. Famous KFC which is a chain of the “YUM” receives almost the half of his annual revenue from China and it’s the main profiteer of the chicken fast food scandal in China
.
Horse meat scandal eliminates trust for fast food industry

Some time ago, three Taco Bells in Europe found tracks of horse meat in their ground beef. Now concerns raise/appear about the integrity of fast food restaurants and slaughterhouses.
Can fast food chains be trusted now with their food?
Another question rises now that horse meat was discovered in Taco Bell’s ground beef if these occurrences are truly an accident or if the suppliers don’t care about what they put in their meat.
Burger King caught in horse meat scandal

Burger King admitted that the burger supplier silvercrest used horse meat in their ground beef.
To appease the customers, the popular fast food chain claims that no horse DNA was found in their tested patties.
It’s not even sure if that horse meat ever reached the customers.
Burger King now uses suppliers from Italy and Germany and no more from Ireland where that horse meat came from.
Diego Beomant, global quality vice president at Burger King, apologized for letting that customers down.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Europe vs. The United States




In this post, we study the differences between fast food in the United States of America and Europe. There are many differences like the quantity of salt, size of the burgers, price etc.

Here is a little view on the principal differences:

The first difference is that different studies have shown, that salt levels in similar food are not equal. In Europe, for example France or United Kingdom, salt levels are lower than the salt level in the USA or in Canada. A recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has examined Domino’s Pizza, Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway.

·      Example for Chicken Mc Nuggets in McDonald’s:
 Europe: 0,6g salt per 100g
 USA: 1,5g salt per 100g

Salt level is two times higher in the US than in Europe.

The second difference is the price of bills. The fast food in Europe is more expensive than in the US.

·        Example for price of a Big Mac (US dollars, July 2008):
  Europe: 5,34
  USA: 3,57

·        Other example for the price of a menu “Best Of” McDonald’s:
  France: 7,50€
  USA: 5€

Speaking about money, did you know that France is the second most valuable country for McDonald’s? Europeans like fast food just as much as Americans do. But the fast food chains have different business strategies on the different continents.

This difference is caused particularly because of the different VTA rates in the countries. So the price of the bill is approximately 20% less expensive in USA than in Europe.

The third difference and the last difference is the consumption of junk food and the frequency with which people visit a fast food restaurant.


Example of drink (soda) with this map per person with an indices:


We see here that in Europe people drink less soda than in the USA (Indices 200 in USA and 30 in Europe)




For conclusion, we can say that one point is similar in Europe or in USA. Indeed, it’s difficult to walk around in the street without seeing a Burger King or a Mc Donald’s.  


Economic impact of fast food


Economic impact of fast food


Many people believe that Fast food is synonymous with the “American Lifestyle” and had also is origins in the United States, however most fast-food is of European origin, with a history dating back to the old romans. One famous example is the pizza. Originally the pizza was a simple flat bread (focaccia) to which toppings was added. Since people started to eat for pleasure, or while travelling the fast food industry started to grow. Mc donalds one of the biggest fast food chains on earth employs 1800000 people on the global scale, an there are more than 34000 restaurants worldwide.


THE 4 MOST SUCCESFULL FAST FOOD CHAINS IN EUROPE

Name
Presence in countries
Employees
Yearly sales
1
Mc Donalds
119
1.800.000
27.56bn $
2
Subway
99
150000
16.4bn
3
Pizza Hut
100
140000
13.6bn
4
Burger King
80
750000
1.97bn


The Fast Food industry is one of the biggest employers and has a big economic impact. Especially young people are employed in that sector. Fast food chains pay minimum wage, work condition are hard, and career opportunities are scarce.But for the average students it is a good way of making money. In the US 1 out of 3 citizens work for Mc donalds at least once during their lifetime.