In today’s society the majority of Americans are living in a single parent home. Due to this, the parent is left handling all of the bills. By the parent working so much, the family does not have the luxury as many of the families did in the past; them having home cooked meals all the time. Thus, the fast food industry is seeing a major growth in its profits. But they are also taking some losses also. This article will break down how much food is wasted yearly by fast food restaurants.

Have you ever been to a fast food restaurant and seen a long line and wondered how it was moving so quickly? That is because the cooks were already making the food before the customers was there. Each restaurant has some way of knowing when it is peak time and how many customers they can expect to come in at a particular time, like before a NFL game starts. But if they cook too much, the leftover food then gets tossed into the trash. Once the food is cooked, it only has a certain amount of time to be out until it is no longer considered edible by health inspection standards. If you ever want to actually see how much food a particular restaurant has to throw out, look in their garbage at the end of the night. You will definitely see a lot of food wasted on a busy night. A restaurant would rather have too much food and throw the food out, then them not making enough and having long lines and dissatisfied customers.

Another way that fast food restaurants waste food is by careless workers actions. A lot of workers, by one reason or the other tends to make carless mistakes that causes for the restaurant to have to throw away food. You may have a new worker that isn’t use to the pace of the restaurant that may drop food. Once the food hits the ground, then they must automatically through it away. You may also have it where the customer themselves may not be satisfied and return with the product. Once the product crosses over the counter, the restaurant can no longer give that product to anyone else.

The last reason that will be discussed is dealing with the workers in the back. This can be anyone from the cook to the preparer’s. One has to realize that we are human, and as humans we make mistakes. So you may have a situation where the food was accidently left out and could no longer be cooked. You also have the possibility that the cook can over cook the food. You may also have the situation where the preparer fixed the given item wrong.

No matter what the reason may be, there is still so much food wasted yearly by fast food restaurants. If one was to actually know the mathematical amount of food wasted, they will be shocked. The fast food company really don’t stress due to the fact that the minimal loos that they suffer from food being thrown out doesn’t even compare to the astronomical growth that they are experiencing. Hopefully, in the future, they will be able to cut down on the vast amount of food wasted.