Complicated problems with Vietnamese street foods

It is strongly advised that you should try street foods for many good reasons. According to J. Mirobiol (2011), "street vended foods are not only appreciated for their unique flavors, convenience and the role which they play in the cultural and social heritage of societies, they have also become important and essential for maintaining the nutritional status of the populations. Besides offering business opportunities for developing entrepreneurs, the sale of street foods can make a sizeable contribution to the economies of developing countries." However, in Vietnam, street foods pose such serious problems that the government is trying to tackle with.

1. The first and foremost issue is public health risks. The first reason is that in Vietnam, the origin of food is carefully not examined so it may contain many harmful substances. Secondly, the steps of making street are often in unhygienic conditions which encourage the development of harmful bacteria causing serious health problems such as cholera or food poisoning.

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2.  Besides food safety, sanitation is also a signification problem. The sellers tend to throw waste right on the streets which not only create an ideal environment for harmful bacteria but also cause water drain. The customers also play an important part in tossing paper tissues into the ground.

Source: google image

3. Traffic congestion is the last trouble I would like to mention. In Vietnam, most vendors locate in crowded places where they can sell more products. This can lead to massive traffic jam in rush hours which not only makes the customers feeling annoyed eating next to the jungle of vehicles but also makes the drivers irritated.

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Reference:

1) Microbio, I. J. (2011). Street Vended Food in Developing World: Hazard Analyses.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3209856/

2) Street foods. (n.d.). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
http://www.fao.org/fcit/food-processing/street-foods/en/