As city lights turn on, on the sidewalk of Nguyễn Chí Thanh street, Điện Biên Phủ ward, a small stall begins operation. The vendor sequentially displays trays of sausages, fried meatballs, fried dough pastries, sweet potato fritters, and more on a plastic table, preps ingredients, lights the oil burner, and starts serving customers.

Each evening, the stall welcomes dozens of customers. Yet, what warrants attention is that the preparation area sits right beside the roadway, with food displayed for sale lacking proper covering. According to the stall owner, customer traffic is fairly steady each evening. This work provides extra income for the family while serving customers’ demand for quick, convenient meals. However, discussing food safety conditions, the owner shared that due to the small scale, simple dishes, and absence of past incidents, proper attention has not truly been paid to sanitation requirements during business operations.

Not far away, along Hoàng Công Chất street, Điện Biên Phủ ward, a fast-food eatery draws a fairly large crowd in the evening. Instead of using separate utensils to handle raw ingredients and cooked, grilled food, the vendor shares the same tongs throughout preparation and serving. This harbors risks of cross-contamination from raw to cooked food, especially when utensils are not sanitized prior to contacting prepared dishes.

While vendors remain subjective, many consumers also easily overlook signs of substandard hygiene. Nguyễn Thị H., residing in Mường Thanh ward, shared: “Buying food outside, looking at the display and preparation sometimes reveals places that are not very sanitary. But because it is convenient, breaking the habit is difficult.”

For Trần Thị N., residing in Điện Biên Phủ ward, choosing street food relies heavily on convenience and practical circumstances. On busy days without enough time to prepare meals at home, she often opts for ready-to-eat dishes. According to her, when purchasing, it is difficult to control the source of ingredients as well as the entire processing cycle, so she merely prioritizes clean-looking sales areas to select food.

Street food provides convenience for consumers. However, the roadside selling environment and a lack of caution in preparation and preservation can impair food quality. Dust from passing traffic, insects, substandard water sources, or unsanitary cooking utensils all harbor contamination risks. For ready-to-eat dishes that are not carefully covered, kept in improper conditions, or left for extended periods at unsuitable temperatures, conditions are ripe for microorganisms to proliferate. In particular, using shared utensils for both raw and cooked food elevates cross-contamination hazards, impacting consumers’ health.

Across the province, there are currently 1,996 food production, trading, and catering service establishments under commune-level management. Điện Biên Phủ ward and Mường Thanh ward alone house approximately 500 food service and street food establishments. Under decentralized administrative management, each year, wards proactively formulate plans, coordinating with functional agencies to organize inspections and supervision while requiring business households to sign commitments guaranteeing food safety. However, managing these establishments still encounters considerable difficulties.

Street food satisfies fast, convenient dining demands while generating livelihoods for many residents. Nevertheless, convenience is truly meaningful only when paired with safety conditions. From the beginning of the year to date, the province has recorded no food poisoning cases related to street food. Even so, shortcomings in preparation, preservation, and serving still harbor latent food safety hazards. To prevent food poisoning, alongside the involvement of functional authorities, vendors must heighten their sense of responsibility, buyers must become more proactive in food choices, and regulatory management must be maintained regularly, tailored to the business realities across each locality.