Fast Food

A medium Coca-Cola sold at McDonald's for $1.29 costs the restaurant about 10¢ to make and serve.

Raising the federal minimum wage by $1.00 would add about 2 cents to the cost of a fast food hamburger.

Dannon strawberry yogurt and Ocean Spray pink-grapefruit juice contain carminic acid which is made from the desiccated bodies of female dactylopius coccus costa insects. The bug feeds on red cactus berries, then color from the berries accumulates in the females and their unhatched larvae. The insects are collected in Peru and the Canary Islands, dried and ground into pigment for those products as well as frozen fruit bars, candies and snacks with fruit fillings.

The chickens used to make Chicken McNuggets and other fast food products live only seven weeks between being hatched and slaughtered.

Homicide is the leading cause of workplace fatalities for women in the United States.

Two out of three fast food restaurant robberies are perpetrated by current or former employees.

About 50% of all restaurant workers participate in some form of cash or property theft from their employer - not including theft of food.

In 1998 more US restaurant employees were murdered at work than police officers.

In 1976 the average American ate 94 pounds of beef each year. Now, the typical American eats 68 pounds.

McDonald's french fries contain a flavoring derived from beef. Wendy's Grilled Chicken sandwich and Burger King's BK Broiler Chicken Breast contain a flavor addititive derived from charred sawdust.

from Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser