Fast Food Packaging

Early History

In premodern, rural societies, the average person did not regularly venture far from home. When people did travel, they usually stayed with relatives and acquaintances and consumed their meals there. As people began to trek farther from home and were unable to dine with people they knew, eating out transformed into a commercial venture. The restaurant, as it is experienced in the 21st century, is a modern, urban phenomenon that evolved as a result of the concentration of people, money, and commercial activity in urban hubs. Unlike fine dining restaurants, fast food restaurants responded to the perceived need for inexpensive, hot meals that could be quickly prepared, served, and eaten on the go; fast food packaging became the transport mechanism for these meals.

Like most innovations, the fast food wrapper was born out of necessity. While people tend to associate the term fast food with any number of U.S. QSR chains like McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, the earliest fast food was street food, peddled to pedestrians in urban cities throughout the world by independent vendors. Some fast food packaging was—and remains—edible. In the pre-industrial world, a fast food wrapper may have been a type of leaf, gourd, bread product, dumpling, or seafood shell.

The Industrial Revolution brought about major changes in fast food packaging. The same wood-pulp technology that made it possible for newspapers to be more widely circulated throughout Europe and the United States was eventually adapted to make disposable paper bags, boxes, food wrappers, and containers. The same workers who labored in the factories that produced these products likely ate the fast foods that they wrapped; they worked grueling hours and often did not have enough time to return home to eat at mealtimes. Small fish stands selling quick-fried whitefish and sliced potatoes served in a rolled-up piece of newspaper (later inserted into a paper bag) became a mainstay in London factory districts. Pushcart vendors, lunch wagons, and temporary food counters fed factory workers and railroad travelers with foods that could be wrapped in paper and quickly eaten without utensils. Leisure and recreational destinations like the World's Fairs and Coney Island also provided opportunities for carryout “novelty” foods. Hot dogs, sandwiches, hamburgers, and ice cream could also be conveniently contained in edible packages—buns, waffles, and the like.

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