Fast food is the term given to many items that can be prepared and served quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, such as TV dinners, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store which is rapidly prepared and served to the customer in a packaged form for take out/take away.Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating, or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Franchise operations which are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations.The capital requirements to start a fast-food restaurant are relatively small, particularly in areas with non-existent or poorly enforced health codes. Small, individually-owned fast-food restaurants have become common throughout the world. Fast food restaurants with higher sit-in ratios, where customers can sit and have their orders brought to them, are known as fast casual restaurants.

Coca-Cola Co (KO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it reached an agreement to acquire a 40 percent stake in organic tea maker Honest Tea Inc, the latest step by the world's largest beverage company to expand in faster-growing noncarbonated drinks.Financial terms of the investment in Honest...

Drinking one or more carbonated beverages per day may increase your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to a new study published in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association.

Ads for beverages and financial services dominate, effectively tying your wallet to your level of intoxication; automobiles run a close third. Drink, Drive, and Shop!

A new line of enhanced water drinks by the beverage giant may be "made from the best stuff on Earth" but it falls short of claims when it comes to taste.

Nearly one out of ten of 200 beverage samples analyzed in a recent study by the EPA and FDA still had benzene levels above the U.S. EPA drinking water limit of 5 parts per billion (ppb).