There was a time, not too long ago, when the success of a child’s meal in a quick-serve or fast-casual restaurant was predicated on the coolness of whatever toy came with it. Meals we’re “happy” and not necessarily “healthy” – as noted in the general size of the caloric values associated with the fries and soda that came with what was typically just a smaller version of what the adult menu offered.

For over ten years, the KFC brand has seen its fair share of woes. As a member of the YUM! Brands group of restaurants, it has seen its partner companies soar past (even Pizza Hut, which has seen its own set of hurdles to overcome) in terms of popularity and bottom-line performance.

Add in competition from the lies of Chick-fil-A and Popeyes as well as the Great Recession and a few other setbacks, and you’ll see why KFC became the main ingredient of a recipe for disaster.

McDonald’s, the global brand leader in fast-food is seeing a sunset on the horizon. Nostalgia isn’t cutting it with many new customers and the company is struggling to find its way toward meeting the demands of customers who have been loyal for decades and those who never knew the original Hamburglar.

The challenges McDonald’s faces are many but here are a couple of the main ones that it appears to be tackling in some manner:

When we say that Aussie cows send us their resumes, we’re only half-joking – which means we’re also half-serious. You see, the quality of meat that quick-serve and fast-casual restaurants (Fuel Shack in particular) use in their burger menus has a tremendous impact on the way the final product will look and, most importantly, taste when it gets in front of you to eat.

There’s a fire going on at most quick-serve and fast-casual restaurants around the world and Malaysia is no exception to this inferno of spicy food. According to some in the quick-serve restaurant industry, more and more people are leaving the comfort of traditional fare and are choosing to eat spicier foods like Asian and Mexican cuisine.

In fact, if we take this story across the ocean to the U.S.A., we’d find that most Americans (54%) have a preference to foods that are either “hot” or “spicy.” This number is up slightly from just a couple of years earlier.