Author(s): Daisy Sharma, Pratima Pokhrel

Abstract:
Consumption of fast foods has become almost a global phenomenon. The street food and fast food trade is a growing sector in many developing countries today. Its expansion is linked with urbanization and the need of urban and semi-urban populations for both employment and food. So the research study was planned to find out the “Prevalence of Fast Food Intake among Urban and semi urban Adolescent Students”. For the collection of data a representative sample of 200 urban and semi-urban adolescent students were randomly selected in the target area i.e. urban and semi- urban areas of Guwahati city namely Narengi, Panikhaiti, Six mile, Downtown, Jayanagar and Ganeshguri. A structured questionnaire was administered and interviews were carried out on the students in different schools and colleges and market places of the Guwahati city to gather the data related to the subject. It was found from the study that a large majority of the respondents belonged to the age group of 19-20yrs (70%), while 30% of them were between 21-24yrs. Among these 74% of them were hostellers. About 44% of them carried packed lunch while rest 56% of the respondents do not carry packed lunch and eat fast food during their lunch time. About 94% of the respondents replaced at least one of their meals with fast food while 6% replaced more than 2 meals with fast food. A large majority of consumers reported incidences of food contaminated with hair, nails, stones, thread etc. Awareness of health hazards associated with fast foods use among 68% participants observed in this study. Emotional states like boredom, stress and depression also has an influence on fast food intake of adolescents. On the other hand, flavour, variety, brand, fast service and availability were found main driving force in fast food intake. Also exposure to advertisements, media influence and urbanization were found chief factors in fast food intake.