Abstract: With the advent of changing lifestyles, demand for fast food products is augmenting day by day, especially among the student community, the trend is tremendously enhancing. Globalization and urbanization have greatly affected ones eating habits and forced many people to consume fancy and high calorie fast foods. Hence the present short research was conducted to know the preferences and consumption patterns towards fast- food products among college students. The questionnaire was framed through a google form about the perception, consumption pattern and frequency of fast food intake and shared the link through an online platform for data collection. Among the respondents, 96% of females and 94% of males preferred fast foods. Only 3% of the females and 5% of the males had fast foods daily whereas 38% of females and 51% of males consumed fast foods weekly once. Nearly 34% females and 57% male’s favored fast foods because of its taste, 10.5% females and 3% males preferred for a low cost. Nearly 91% of females and 31% of males chosen fast foods because of its availability. It was found that 34% of females and 13% of males were influenced by social media for fast food consumption, 38% of females and 56% of males preferred fast foods because of peer group influence. The majority of the female and male respondents preferred fried chicken (140±12.4) followed by pizza. Compared with other fast food types, preference for Pepsi or coke was found to be lesser among the college student respondents. Though the harmful effects on health-related to the consumption of fast foods are known, students prefer it to take due to their peer influences and social media advertisements. Nutrition education on healthy food choices must be imparted among adolescents to restrict the frequency of consuming fast foods.

Keywords: fast foods, college students, preference, consumption

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2022.9163