The New Fast Food Nation?

Many international companies hungrily eye the Chinese market and it's 1.3 billion potential consumers. Perhaps none more so than KFC (and it's parent company, Kentucky-based Yum! Brands), who now owns over 2500 locations in China and is opening a new one every day, according to a recent report on CNN. Eventually, says the Yum! Brands website, the company wants to build over 20,000 "quick service" restaurants in the country.

According to the same report, fast food sales in China is expected to reach $58.8 billion this year, and while the U.S. is still the leader in per capita spending on fast food, it appears to me that China is well on its way to becoming another fast food nation.

KFC has also taken care to avoid replicating the U.S. model in China, and offers not just fried chicken on the menu, but local dishes such as rice porridge and egg tarts. Yum! Brands is also testing a new restaurant concept called "East Dawning" that provides "affordable, great-tasting, authentic Chinese food to the Chinese customer."

I think what concerns me most is the attitudes towards fast food. Says CNN reporter Emily Chang, "Western fast food isn't the cheapest meal around in China... local food can be had for less. But it's considered trendy, convenient, clean and even healthy, attracting a growing middle class that wants to indulge in a modern lifestyle." The report interviews various patrons who say that they like fast food for the speed, consistency and the belief that the restaurants have better health conditions than non-fast food chains. In a Time article from 2003, a Chinese fast food patron was identified as someone who takes his wife and 10-month-old son to eat at KFC three or four times a week.

I can't help but reflect back on America's fast-food culture and our alarming obesity rates and worry about China's future. If we need further evidence of the connection between fast food and obesity, consider the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's study on the correlation between time spent eating and obesity:


Data courtesy OECD via The New York Times.

The president of Yum! Brands in China, Samuel Su, has been working to overturn the image of fast food as being unhealthy junk food, according to a recent article in the New York Times. Yet as the company says this, most of the imaging on their website continues to promote fried chicken and pizza as part of everyday (perhaps even traditional?) Chinese living:


Source: Yum! Brands website

Are you kidding me?

But beyond the health issue, what I worry more about is China's food culture--one that ties eating and food with family traditions and health. Typical Chinese families visit local markets (what we would call "farmers markets") daily to buy fresh food for the day's meals, which can be a time-consuming (yet important, in my opinion) part of the day. Eating together is the norm, though perhaps this is changing in the cities. What will happen when the benefits of quick and easy overrules the benefits of fresh and homemade?

Watch CNN's full report here: