The restaurant industry is divided into segments that include full-service, fast service, food and beverage, and the retail host. They analyzed the effects of policies in specific regions or nations, such as reducing meat production and consumption, reducing food waste and loss, increasing crop yields and international land use planning. The wholesale markets for fresh food products have tended to lose importance in urbanizing countries, including Latin America and some Asian countries, as a result of the growth of supermarkets, which buy directly from farmers or through preferred suppliers, instead of going to markets. The food industry is a complex global network of diverse companies that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population.
This category includes full-service restaurants, fast food establishments, catering companies, some coffee shops, and other places that prepare, serve, and sell food to the general public for profit. Since World War II, agriculture in the United States and the entire national food system have been characterized by models that focus on monetary profitability at the expense of social and environmental integrity. This segment prepares and serves food in support of the primary function or purpose of some other establishment. The food service (American English) or the restaurant industry (British English) define the companies, institutions and companies responsible for any food prepared outside the home.
Most of the food produced for the food industry comes from basic crops that use conventional agricultural practices. Food texture refers to the qualities of a food that can be felt with your fingers, tongue, palate, or teeth. Many fast-food restaurant companies opened establishments in non-traditional locations, such as department stores. Food processing uses components that are cleaned, harvested or slaughtered and dismembered and uses them to produce marketable food products.
Any change in market share between fast-food and full-service restaurants could influence the combination of food and services offered by both types of establishments. Only subsistence farmers, those who survive on what they grow and hunter-gatherers can be considered outside the purview of the modern food industry. Organizations, such as the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), have been criticized for accepting monetary donations from companies in the food industry, such as Coca-Cola. Food processing includes the methods and techniques used to transform raw materials into food for human consumption.
