When Street Food Gets Sanitized
In emerging economies, hawker cuisine will become less accessible to the people who rely on it most.
Taking it off the streets.
Photographer: Lauryn Ishak/Bloomberg
As the coronavirus pandemic continues, Bloomberg Opinion will be running a series of features by our columnists that consider the long-term consequences of the crisis. This column is part of a package on how the pandemic is altering the business of eating and drinking. For more, see Bobby Ghosh on the future of destination dining, Amanda Little’s interview with the CEO of Beyond Meat and James Gibney’s interview with Daniel Okrent and Wayne Curtis on the future of bars and cocktails.
With the Covid-19 pandemic shuttering restaurants around the world, it’s easy to forget that for billions of people, “eating out” means just that: ready-to-eat snacks, meals and beverages prepared by vendors and hawkers in street-side carts and stalls. In developing countries, street foods constitute a significant source of daily caloric intake — as much as 50% in some places — and aren’t easily substituted. They’re not just the only way most people dine out, but also often the most affordable way to buy food, period.