The Big Mac was first sold in 1967 at a franchise in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It cost 45 cents.
Fast food facts
The odd, true and countable side of burgers, fries, nuggets and the chocolate bars by the till.
A man in Wisconsin ate his 35,000th Big Mac in 2025, a Guinness World Record. He started in 1972 and kept every box and receipt.
A US Big Mac meal with medium fries and a medium Coke comes to 1,170 kcal. That is about eleven medium bananas.
A large McDonald's fries in the US is 480 kcal, about the same as four and a half medium bananas.
Chicken McNuggets come in four set shapes: the bell, the boot, the ball and the bone, also called the bow tie.
A 20 piece box of Chicken McNuggets in the US is 830 kcal, roughly the same as eight medium bananas.
The Egg McMuffin began in 1971 in Santa Barbara as a go at eggs Benedict. Packaged hollandaise did not work, so it got a slice of cheese instead.
The Whopper first went on sale in Miami in 1957 for 37 cents, eleven years before the Big Mac went national.
A US Triple Whopper has 1,130 kcal and 67 g of protein. That is more protein than eleven boiled eggs.
KFC's 11 herbs and spices have sat in a vault since 1970. Two suppliers each make about half the blend, so neither knows the full mix.
In 2019 KFC stored an encrypted digital copy of its recipe in a nuclear bunker in Sweden, about 30 m underground.
Subway started in 1965 as Pete's Super Submarines, with $1,000 and a 17 year old founder. It sold 312 sandwiches on day one.
Starbucks was nearly called Pequod, after the whaling ship in Moby Dick. The founders went with the name of its first mate, Starbuck.
The Snickers bar is said to be named after a horse. It launched in Chicago in 1930 and cost five cents.
In the UK, Snickers was sold as Marathon from 1967 until 1990.
KitKat launched in York in 1935 as Rowntree's Chocolate Crisp. It only got the name KitKat two years later.
A four finger KitKat is about 210 kcal, the same as two medium bananas.
The Mars bar was born in Slough, England. Forrest Mars set up the factory there in 1932 and it still makes the bar today.
Oreo first appeared on 6 March 1912. It launched in two flavours, chocolate and lemon meringue.
About 40 billion Oreos are made every year. Stacked up, Mondelēz says they would circle the Earth five times.
Fredric Baur, who designed the Pringles can, asked to be buried in one. When he died in 2008, his children put part of his ashes in a Pringles can.
A 330 ml can of Coke is 139 kcal. The company itself puts that at 7% of what an average adult eats and drinks in a day.
A 250 ml can of Red Bull has 80 mg of caffeine, about the same as a cup of home brewed coffee.
The Nathan's hot dog eating record is 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes, set by Joey Chestnut in New York in 2021.
Domino's began in 1960 as a single shop called DomiNick's. A year later, one of the two brothers who bought it swapped his half for a Volkswagen Beetle.