system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How do most fast food places have such a consistent product?

In most fast food places, I can order something, and I know it'll taste exactly the same as when I last ordered it, even if I order it at a different location in a chain. Personally, when I cook, in order to get that level of consistency, I'd have to be quite careful, if I put something together as quickly as a fast food restaurant, it will taste somewhat different every time. What methods do they employ to do this?
gpt
All the food is prepared at central distributors and shipped out. The franchise just does the final cooking.  The things that are really giving that consistent flavoring are the sauces and spices, which the franchise gets in bulk from corporate.  Mcdonalds franchises aren't prepping burger patties or chicken nuggets, they are getting them just as you could from the freezer section at the grocery store. Even stores that do a bit more work at the franchise will follow this pattern. For example, ChickFilA batters the chicken at the franchise, but they probably get batter mix from corporate. 

Cook times and methods are also standardized. For example, everything deep fried has a specific oil temp and cook time that are built into the frier controls. The franchise doesn't need to even have anything special to track it, they just press start on the frier and the timer starts. 

For grilled things, it is a bit harder to standardize, but not too bad.  There is generally just burgers and chicken being grilled.  The burgers are always cooked medium well+ which is an easy mark to hit. Consistently hitting perfect medium rare is tricky, but medium well to well is easy to hit without going drastically over. 

Edit. One other thing is large batch sizes. Lets say you make fries at home in a small home frier. It is easy to over/undersalt them because 1 extra shake of salt is a significant fraction of the total salt. But when you cook 10 lbs of fries or however much at once, one extra shake is hardly anything in comparison.