Street Food is Here to Stay

As street food becomes more popular, more people feel suspicious of the security. Many claim that street food is unsanitary and unsafe. They also give the impression that street food vendors shouldn’t be trusted.

Angela C. Erickson, senior research analyst of the Institute of Justice, informed that Street Eats, Safe Eats recently tested those claims by reviewing over 260,000 food-safety inspection reports from seven large American cities. Food trucks and carts were placed under the same health codes as restaurants to ensure equality. Erickson reported that of the seven cities examined–Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Louisville, Miami, Seattle, and Washington D.C.–the street food trucks and carts did exceptional. They didn’t receive any more citations than restaurants did. As a matter of fact, they did better than restaurants.

Erickson says, “The results suggest that the notion that street food is unsafe is a myth.” This proves critics of street food that street food vendors have just as much potential at success as restaurateurs.

In a bar chart provided by Susannah Locke from Vox, statistics displayed the average food-safety violations by category of food service from each city mentioned above. It showed that food carts had the fewest number of citations than food trucks, restaurants, hotels, and other food services. Restaurants evidently violated more food-safety regulations than all of the others.

In fear of increased competition, restaurants have been wanting to establish official ground rules on food trucks and carts. Sarah E. Needleman, from the Wall Street Journal, tells that Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Seattle are a few of the many cities that want to enact laws that prohibit “where food trucks can serve customers in proximity to their rivals and for how long.” In response to this, some mobile vendors contend that they shouldn’t be restrained for offering a contemporary food service to customers. In addition, a new rule requires food trucks to “install global-positioning devices” so that the city can trace its whereabouts.

“It is a free market. Let consumers decide when and where the want to eat,” says Amy Le, owner of Duck N Roll, a food truck in Chicago that serves Asian-style cuisine.

On the other hand, restaurants argue that food trucks interfere with its businesses. Co-owner of El Gaucho Luca’s Café in Las Vegas, Camy Silva, claims that food trucks park in front of their businesses during their busiest hours. Although it may be intentional, it just shows that food truck vendors are in the competition as much as restaurateurs are. Since restaurants are willing to enact laws on food trucks, food trucks are willing to do anything they can to attract customers.

The number of food trucks increase with time which toughens the competition with nearby restaurants. According to Needleman, Boston had thirty-eight food trucks in operation in 2012 and only seventeen in 2011. Additionally, St. Louis had twenty-nine food trucks in operation in 2012 compared to none in 2010. As more food trucks establish, the more recognition it will receive. The increasing number of food trucks each year demonstrate the popularity and fondness that street food is gaining.

Food trucks and carts have increasingly grown in popularity and it will only continue. They’re proved to be as sanitary and its food as delicious as restaurants. Its consumers and supporters will stand for its convenience, inexpensive prices, and definitely food. With that being said, step aside restaurants, because food trucks and carts aren’t going anywhere.

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