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baked potato, breakfast, cinnamon, coffee, customer, dinner, fast food, french fries, fried chicken, go, hamburger, holiday, kale, lemon, lemonade, lions pride, lunch, pizza, restaurant, salad bars, saturday, sugar, unofficial, weekend

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Do you have meal plans set for Saturday? If not, you might be so inclined to indulge in your favorite fast food. Saturday, November 16, is National Fast Food Day. If you’ve been craving a juicy hamburger with a side of fries, there’s no better time to hop in the car and enjoy a quick meal on the go.
“Fast food,” of course, is a blanket term for any type of food that is made and prepared for a customer in a short amount of time. The phrase first appeared in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1951 but has an extensive history. Read more from the History of Fast Food.
As you know, fast food first began as burgers, fries and shakes, but now includes everything from breakfast sandwiches to Chinese food. Today, we’re celebrating the unofficial holiday with a list of interesting, fun facts:
- Did you know that Chick-fil-A is famous for its restaurant lemonade? So much so, they’ve become the largest Sunkist lemon buyer. Each year, they sell about 121 million cups of lemonade, which requires them to purchase approximately 250 million lemons.
- You may be surprised to learn that Subway, not McDonald’s, is the largest fast food chain in the world. Subway has an estimated 24,000 stores in the United States and 42,000 stores worldwide, which is 17% more than its highest competitor, McDonald’s.
- Before kale became a popular health food item, Pizza Hut was the largest purchaser. The fast food didn’t use the leafy greens for the pizzas but instead to decorate their salad bars.
- You may have heard that Dunkin Donuts coffee is served fresh, but do you know how fresh? According to the national coffee chain, if coffee doesn’t get used within 18 minutes, the staff will discard and brew a new carafe.
- Wendy’s is the only fast food chain that sells baked potatoes on the side. Each week, the popular chain sells approximately one million baked potatoes.
- Did you know the delicious cinnamon scent you experience when strolling through a shopping mall is fabricated? It’s true. Cinnabon entices shoppers by baking empty cookie sheets covered in their exclusive sugar and cinnamon mixture every 30 minutes. Talk about sneaky!
Will you observe National Fast Food Day? If so, where will you go? We’d love to hear in the comments below.
Whether you prefer a burger and fries, fried chicken or pizza, we hope you enjoy this fun concocted holiday. Happy National Fast Food Day from Lions Pride!