TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– This paper seeks to estimate importance of various factors affecting the choice of fast food outlets by Indian young consumers.Design/methodology/approach– The study applies multivariate statistical tools to estimate importance of various factors affecting the choice of fast food outlets by Indian young consumers. In addition, the authors analysed the consumption patterns, impact of hygiene and nutritional values, and rating of various attributes of McDonald's and Nirula's.Findings– Results indicate that the young Indian consumer has passion for visiting fast food outlets for fun and change but home food is their first choice. They feel homemade food is much better than food served at fast food outlets. They have the highest value for taste and quality (nutritional values) followed by ambience and hygiene. Three dimensions (service and delivery dimension, product dimension, and quality dimension) of fast food outlets' attributes are identified based on factor analysis results. The two fast food outlets' rating differs significantly on the seven attributes. McDonald's scores are higher on all attributes except “variety”. Further, consumers feel that fast food outlets must provide additional information on nutritional values and hygiene conditions inside kitchen.Practical implications– Fast food providers need to focus on quality and variety of food besides other service parameters. There is need to communicate the information about hygiene and nutrition value of fast food which will help in building trust in the food provided by fast food players.Originality/value– Estimates importance of various factors affecting the choice of fast food outlets by Indian young consumers. VL - 109 IS - 2 SN - 0007-070X DO - 10.1108/00070700710725536 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700710725536 AU - Goyal Anita AU - Singh N.P. PY - 2007 Y1 - 2007/01/01 TI - Consumer perception about fast food in India: an exploratory study T2 - British Food Journal PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 182 EP - 195 Y2 - 2024/03/28 ER -