Packaging has evolved, too, so cups hold more than shakes and sodas. “7-Eleven has come up with a clever idea where they’ve taken a wrap and put it in a cup. You have the cup to hold the wrap in, [and] you can set it back down into the cup,” says licensed nutritionist and culinary consultant June Alpert of Arlene Spiegel & Associates, Inc.  “People are looking to multi-task. They eat at their computer; they eat while they’re walking. So, mainly it has to be food that is packaged in a way that makes it portable and able to eat without utensils.

“It needs to be convenient—a one-dish meal, all the components of a meal in one package.”

The average quick-serve restaurant does up to 60 percent of its business through the drive-thru, Noveshen says. “The crème de la crème of drive-thru operators are doing 60, 70 cars an hour.”

So while picking the right menu items is important to the success of most quick-serve restaurants, finding menu choices that beat the clock is just as vital. Prep time needs to be minimal to prevent backups in the drive-thru lane and to ensure repeat business from customers pleased by the breezy ease of getting served good food, pronto.

Quick-serve restaurants are enlisting new technology to speed up takeout in some places. Fatburger is among the quick-serve restaurants that don’t offer many drive-thru lanes—most of its fresh burgers take eight minutes from start to finish—but to increase takeout business from the counter, the company recently began an initiative to redesign its takeout program and launched an Internet-based pre-ordering system.

Test runs of online ordering generated hundreds of sales at four locations before the program launched chainwide in July.  “The transactions are quicker,” Patel says. “Say you’re at work, at your computer, it’s 10 a.m., and you want to come to Fatburger for lunch. You go on the web site, click on the closest store, say what time you’ll be there, select your items, pay online with your credit card, come in, and go straight to the front, where it’s already .”

The ordering system was developed by Kudzu Interactive, which also supplies online ordering technology to Subway, Moe’s Southwest Grill, Tony Roma’s, McAlister’s Deli, Baja Fresh Mexican Grill, Ninety Nine, Mama’s Fu’s Asian House, and Shane’s Rib Shack. Orders go directly from consumers’ computers to the restaurant’s point-of-service system.

“When a grill cook is cooking, they’ll look at the monitor, and say the customer is coming in 10 or 15 minutes, the order automatically pops up on the terminal,” Patel says. “There’s no human error.”

Fatburger is also, as part of revamping its takeout program, exploring new food wrappers. Officials there are looking at samples of various foil and paper packaging. It’s a fine line. “Freshness is key and that’s why we’re trying to develop materials to deliver that to the customers,” Patel says. “If we’re putting efforts into our takeout program, we want to make sure the burgers stay warm and fresh and crisp. We don’t want materials that make the bread or condiments get soggy and mushy.”

Wrapping and packaging are crucial to the success of drive-thru menu choices. Items like burgers that don’t fit in a cup need to be easily managed with one hand for dashboard diners. “You want things that don’t drip,” Noveshen says. “It’s great if they’re wrapped in a way so that the wrapping is holding the bottom and they can eat out of the wrapping. That’s optimal.”

Manufacturers, restaurants, and stores that peddle convenient on-the-go foods continue experimenting with fitting food into cup-holder-sized packages, as well as creating individualized servings or finger foods. Fruit epitomizes to-go food that’s suitable for in-car dining, i.e. doesn’t require utensils, Alpert says. And she sees a trend with stores and manufacturers increasingly packaging fruit to be eaten on the go, especially with rising demand from consumers for healthy and organic foods.

“A lot of companies are going to portion control fruits and vegetables—already cut, already washed, bite-sized, ready to go, no utensils,” she says. “Some of the natural companies are making cut fruits that don’t brown; natural powder prevents it from browning. I’ve seen this recently at food shows with apples.”

Other trends in to-go foods include the emergence of organic quick-serve, health-focused, or kosher menu choices, and using locally grown produce. A new Iowa State University study found that convenience store managers and owners are interested in partnering with local growers to offer high-end, fresh foods. Sabra, a manufacturer of Mediterranean dips and spreads, recently began distributing individual servings of Mediterranean hummus, with crackers in a separate compartment, at more than 400 7-Eleven stores.

“Things need to be bite-sized, but they can’t be something kids can choke on,” Alpert says. “It needs to be convenient for dashboard dining, things that fit right into the cup holder. Cups should have good lids on them so they don’t easily spill. Hot cups should be insulated so people don’t easily burn themselves, with secure lids. It’s really all in the packaging. The packaging is really important.”

And what does the future hold for packaging? Besides more and more menu items that fit in cup holders, there’s the possibility that the wrappers of the future might be edible. Research continues on edible whey wrappers and packaging made from pureed fruits and vegetables that are diluted and dried, about as thick as paper and flexible. So far, wrappers have been made from apples, strawberries, peaches, carrots, and broccoli.

“It sort of contains the sandwich, and then you eat it all the way down,” Alpert said. “That might be a fascinating direction.”