WHO BUYS STREET FOOD?
Profile of a street food consumer
The following trends were identified in the CI study on street food in Asia and America:
Gender
In three of the four Asian countries surveyed, men were more prominent consumers of street food than woman.
In India men made up 90% of customers.
(The countries surveyed were: Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Vietnam.)
Occupation
The occupations of consumers depend largely on the location of stalls. In the poor neighbourhoods of Dhaka (Bangladesh), rickshaw pullers made up 43% of street food customers.
In Africa, the street food consumers were the unemployed, followed by students.
In Senegal, for example, nearly 1/3 of all street food customers were children or adolescents.
Frequency
Street food often accounts for a large part of the consumer’s daily food intake.
Almost 50% of the Asian consumers taking part in the survey, bought food from stalls on a daily basis.
What people want - food handling and hygiene
Consumers bear the consequences of eating unsafe food.
We asked people to tell us what
satisfactory conditions meant to them - they gave us the following checklist of questions about the:
- Vending area - is it clean, well ventilated and far from garbage and sewage?
- Appearance of food handlers - do they have good personal hygiene, including clean clothes, shoes, hairnet and clean, trimmed fingernails?
- Facilities - are there covers for food bins, utensils, clean water for washing and other amenities such as chairs, tables and toilet facilities?
- Food - How does it smell and taste? If it smells or tastes unpleasant, it is probably not safe.
