How To Fix Indian Street Food's Hygiene Problems

What will it take for India’s street food vendors to adhere to hygiene standards in the preparation and selling of food?

Is the current lack of hygiene a failure of enforcement or a cultural issue requiring a solution that goes beyond administrative instruments?

India’s informal food sector is an integral part of the nation’s cultural and culinary heritage. While the phrase ‘street food’ prompts images of chaat and rolls, formally, ‘street food’ includes all foods and beverages, including fresh groceries, prepared and/or sold in unauthorised spaces.

In India, the sector sustains the livelihoods of an estimated 2 million street food vendors, employing a diverse workforce. Studies in Pune and Noida show that the majority of the vendors were migrants (60 per cent and 45 per cent respectively), whereas in Assam, 93 per cent were local residents.

Globally, approximately 2.5 billion people consume street food daily due to its affordability and convenience. In India as well, it meets the needs of a range of populations, including those belonging to low-income groups, daily commuters, and tourists. It is a source of both nutrition and employment for many.

Yet, in many parts of the country and in many cases, it comes with a public health trade-off. Unsafe food costs India an estimated USD 15 billion annually, with food poisoning being the second highest contributor of outbreaks in the country, causing approximately 100 million foodborne illnesses and 12,000 associated deaths every year.

Street vendors usually lack basic infrastructure such as access to clean water, sanitation, refrigeration and waste disposal, along with a lack of knowledge on safe food-handling practices. While makeshift carts allow vendors high mobility, allowing them to reach different customer bases, they add to the challenge of enforcing food safety standards.

Given the scale and embeddedness of the street food sector in India’s economic and cultural fabric, and in the lives of everyday Indians, its continued presence is inevitable. Yet, the sector’s nature poses persistent challenges for adherence to hygiene standards and top-down enforcement.

In this context, the behaviours, norms, incentives, and environment that influence the vendors’ own day-to-day practices play a significant role in overall food safety. Ensuring hygienic street food in India depends more on participatory models that actively engage vendors than on compliance-centric approaches.

What do we know about street food vendor behaviour in India?

Vendors prepare their food either at home or at stalls, which are located on busy streets, exposing food to dust and various contaminants. The place of preparation is often dirty and usually not in well-lit areas. Food is uncovered, exposing it to dust, flies, pathogens, and is not reheated properly.

In 70–90 per cent of the cases, presence of animal, insect and liquid waste has been reported. Microorganisms belonging to the genus Bacillus, Staphylococcus, Clostridium, Vibrio, Campylobacter, Listeria and Salmonella are present in contaminated street food.

Procurement of adulterated or contaminated raw materials from unauthorised suppliers to cut costs is a significant problem, particularly for raw meat, poultry, and vegetables, which include potential food-borne pathogens.

Additionally, vendors often handle cash payments while preparing food, causing contamination. Improper disposal of waste food and water further worsens the environment where vendors operate, serving as a breeding ground for rodents, flies, and microorganisms. Lack of storage facilities and infrastructure exacerbates the challenges. Moreover, the personal hygiene of vendors serves as a biological hazard as well.

But surely the vendors themselves are not ignorant of these issues. They may not know the numbers revealed in studies on street food hygiene in India, but surely they know that hygiene, or the lack of it, is an important factor for consumers.

The answer available to us is not encouraging.

In Kolkata, more than 80 per cent of the street food vendors had a basic understanding of food hygiene and were aware of its impact on preventing food-borne illnesses. But less than one-third actually translated it into safe food-handling practices, despite a favourable attitude towards it.

Another cross-sectional study in Chennai identified knowledge gaps relating to personal hygiene, food handling, and the risks of cross-contamination due to a lack of formal training.

Here, the expectations conveyed by the consumers also play an important role. Although consumer awareness of food safety has improved, the continued preference given to cost and flavour reduces the incentive for vendors to invest in improved hygiene.

And what about adherence to government stipulations around hygiene and cleanliness?

A 2021 study in Ahmedabad found that 68 per cent of the vendors did not have awareness regarding government policies on street food vending, and several operated without licences, indicating a gap between policy and practice. Less than half of the vendors adhered to government regulations, and only a quarter had received any formal training.

Overall, there is significant variation across regions in the level of awareness and compliance regarding safe food handling practices.

And it is not as if dealing with the authorities is always smooth for the vendors. At the administrative level, harassment and eviction continue to be a challenge. This further erodes their trust in policies and institutions, impacting compliance.

Role of Consumers

Consumers are often considered as mere passive recipients of economic change, as opposed to active agents using economic goods, with responsibilities, interests and agencies.

However, they are equally necessary to stimulate change, and understanding their perspectives on food safety is important for developing appropriate policies and programmes.

A 2022 study analysing perspectives on food safety of consumers in Ghana, Guinea, India, Kenya, Tanzania and Vietnam found that consumer perceptions were based primarily on personal experiences, social influences, and food-hygiene practices.

Perceptions on hygiene were dependent on ‘clean’ appearances, and the vendor's demeanour helped establish trust. Sensory changes to food were associated with compromised quality and created mistrust in the institutions and policies responsible for addressing food safety.

Interestingly, students of higher educational institutes in Delhi were found to choose vendors who appeared to be conducting more business. Here, too, we see that consumer awareness of food hygiene is not as prevalent as it needs to be.

Despite 74 per cent of the consumers expressing concerns over the quality of the raw materials being used for cooking and drinking, only 10 per cent expressed concerns about food safety, underestimating the incidence and severity of foodborne illnesses.

The COVID pandemic did move the needle on consumer awareness about food hygiene, but only so much.

While taste and affordability are still primary considerations for consumers in Ahmedabad, post-COVID, the emphasis placed on hygiene and sanitation has increased, with it being a critical factor when purchasing street food for 23 per cent of the sampled population, compared to 10 per cent before COVID.

There was a varied level of satisfaction among consumers regarding the current standards of hygiene practised by vendors, indicating there is still room for improvement.

Institutional Support

In the absence of an organic initiative from the vendors and pressure from the consumers, is state enforcement then the only way to ensure hygienic street food in India?

Established in 2008, under the Food Safety and Standards Act of 2006, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has been working towards aligning India’s food safety regulations with international standards while safeguarding the food business operators (FBOs).

According to regulations, 2011 onwards, all FBOs including vendors, were required to obtain a licence and adhere to hygiene practices, explicitly including street food vendors within the ambit of food safety law. The registration fee was later waived for street vendors. However, as of 2024, only one-third of street food vendors were registered.

This low number could be driven by the unpleasant experience of vendors in dealing with the state.

Historically, street vendors have faced harassment and eviction by authorities. To protect their rights, the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 aimed at establishing a participatory governance structure by setting up Town Vending Committees (TVCs) to ensure accountability at the local level.

TVCs have 40 per cent representation from vendors and 10 per cent from civil society participants. They were to conduct surveys at least once every five years, provide identity cards and formulate vending plans. A grievance redressal committee (GRC) was to be set up as well.

However, as of 2020, progress across states remains varied. With states such as Andhra Pradesh having issued identity cards for over 75 per cent of the vendors, whereas states such as Assam, Haryana, and Uttarakhand, among others, continue to lag behind.

Representation of vendors in TVCs remains low. Furthermore, in practice, arbitrary designation of ‘no-vending zones’ by local authorities without consultation from vendors and ambiguities such as the definition of ‘adjoining areas’ near vending zones make them susceptible to harassment, particularly from corrupt officials.

However, all is not bleak.

In 2017, FSSAI launched the Food Safety Training and Certification (FoSTaC) programme to educate food handlers in food hygiene. Upon completion, vendors received certificates and rapid testing kits. A 2023 study assessed FoSTaC’s impact, indicating significant improvements in food safety knowledge.

Presently, 9,73,029 food safety supervisors (persons appointed by an FBO, certified to ensure safe food handling practices) have been trained, with the help of 182 training partners and 2,239 trainers. While this is a significant number, it remains insufficient compared to the 7.5 million registered FBOs and several unregistered FBOs.

Overall, this initiative helped nudge street vendors into an ecosystem where they could uphold food safety standards. FSSAI aims to develop 100 such clean street food streets. This national initiative, supported by the National Health Mission (NHM), provides a grant of Rs 1 crore per food street to upgrade infrastructure and safety practices. Presently, there are 67 Clean Street Food Hubs in India.

During COVID, the PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi) Scheme was launched. This microcredit initiative for street vendors offered collateral-free working capital loans to help vendors sustain and upgrade operations, while formalising them and encouraging digital payments. The scheme has supported over 68 lakh street vendors and will be expanded to help vendors achieve self-reliance.

Additionally, some digital tools were launched. The Food Safety Connect application aimed to empower consumers and improve transparency by allowing them to verify certifications of FBOs, report food safety issues, and understand their rights. The Food Safety Compliance System (FoSCoS) aims to unify digital registrations and licensing information with data from other FSSAI digital platforms including field-level sample inspection data, audit data, FoSTaC, and the food laboratory network.

However, currently, it is limited to a licensing platform and these integrations have not yet been made. The Network of Consumer Organizations for Food and Nutrition (NetCOFaN) was also created to boost consumer trust and enable food sample testing free of cost.

The institutions and frameworks put in place enabled collaboration among multiple ministries and institutions including FSSAI, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Skill Development, Ministry of Tourism and Culture, state departments and non-governmental organisations, among others.

If that sounds too bureaucratic, that is because it is. While the policy frameworks are comprehensive, on-ground implementation lags and requires scaling.

Role of the Formal Sector

The formal sector not only provides competition to informal vendors, but also support.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships with Nestlé and Coca-Cola have been supporting government initiatives for street food vendors. Swiggy ran a pilot in 2020 across Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Chennai, Delhi and Indore, which was later expanded to 125 cities with the goal of onboarding over 36,000 street vendors who took loans from PM SVANidhi.

These vendors received assistance for registering with FSSAI, underwent FoSTaC training, and had to pass a hygiene audit, after which they were supported with onboarding.

However, there is a downside to the formal sector for street food vendors. The growing reliance of consumers on e-commerce and quick commerce platforms is threatening their financial security.

Goldman Sachs predicted that by 2030, the online grocery industry will be valued at USD 60 billion. A meta-analysis indicated that street vendors who earned higher incomes practised better hygiene. However, the impact of the growing dominance of digital platforms on vendor behaviour, such as cost-cutting measures that might compromise food safety to compensate for eroding revenues, has yet to be studied.

The Way Forward

While consumer pressure, government enforcement, and cooperation with the formal sector are important, improving street food safety ultimately requires addressing the attitudes, knowledge, and constraints of the vendors themselves.

Behavioural Nudges

To transition towards safer street food ecosystems, safety must be reframed in the way it is understood and practised in everyday vendor settings.

One such initiative by FSSAI to maintain food safety and hygiene in places of worship is called BHOG (food offerings to God). Framing safety in a contextually relevant manner can improve intrinsic motivation for compliance.

Similar initiatives can be designed for street vendors as well. During training sessions, using vivid demonstrations such as showing how uncovered food spoils or a UV lamp to reveal invisible germs can leave a lasting impression by enhancing the salience of food safety risks.

Behavioural nudges that make safer practices the default can accelerate change. Vendors can be provided with hygiene kits, including hairnets, gloves, and soap, at the time of licence renewal or onboarding. Mandating their use at city food fairs or certified zones can normalise them as the standard.

Recognition systems also offer positive reinforcement. Hygiene ratings and certification QR codes, which vendors can display on carts, signal cleanliness to consumers and create market-based incentives for fellow street vendors.

Refresher training courses are required to ensure that standards of safety are maintained, and updated information regarding best practices and schemes can be disseminated to the vendors. A study indicates that food handlers believed that refresher courses within two years would be acceptable.

Moreover, training and FSSAI schemes can be linked to or used to spread information about other schemes that may help street vendors, such as PM SVANidhi, to truly build self-reliance and improve trust in institutions.

Local vendor networks and associations in Ghana found that members were concerned with perceptions of mistrust in street food and collectively tried to promote a positive image by improving hygiene and vendor appearance. Such communities can help establish norms of safety and shape behaviour. Encouraging the formation of such networks in India can also increase the uptake of food safety practices.

Consumer Awareness

Vendors are driven by consumer preferences and commercial viability. This is indicated in a study which found that while consumers emphasised clean appearances, they often ignored food safety practices.

Consumers must be educated on the risks of unsafe food, the probability of consuming contaminated items, and how to identify safe food practices. They must also be encouraged to reward compliant vendors with continued patronage.

Efforts must be made to increase awareness about the resources available to consumers such as NetCOFaN and the Food Safety Connect application.

Innovations and Modernisation

FSSAI has been developing standardised carts with storage lockers and in-built sinks. University students in Vadodara designed solar-powered food carts with storage facilities and features such as foldable platforms for cooking and customers that add to their functionality. The carts are enclosed to provide weather protection and security. Such innovation should be supported and its use encouraged.

The expansion of digital payments offers a natural nudge for better practices, reducing cash handling and improving hygiene.

Further, integrating vendors into e-commerce and quick commerce ecosystems brings them under quality assurance standards, reinforced by customer reviews and instant feedback loops. Moreover, digital QR codes of FBO certifications visibly integrated for each FBO on e-commerce platforms can help build consumer awareness and trust.

Marketing street food in a positive light with the help of such platforms, and including vendors in the digital transformation under CSR initiatives, can ensure that the sector continues to thrive.

Alongside food safety, India’s nutrition agenda must address the quality of what is sold. Reducing trans fats, excess salt, and sugar in common street foods is a priority. Encouraging the use of fortified foods, particularly in staples, can enhance public health. Developing systems to ensure the use of healthy foods in a sector that feeds millions can help improve national nutrition outcomes.

Institutional Support and Capacity

Vendors often struggle with compliance due to lack of basic infrastructure. The marginalisation of vendors is evident in city designs. By adopting urban planning approaches that recognise vendors as contributors to urban economies and integrating vendor zones within the city infrastructure, an environment that enables compliance can be designed in consultation with the vendors.

Environmental hazards such as extreme heat, air pollution, and waterlogging not only reduce consumer footfall but also create inhospitable conditions for vendors to operate in.

These factors should also be taken into consideration while designing vendor zones to ensure an environment conducive to conducting business. This can be achieved in collaboration with other government initiatives such as the Smart Cities Mission and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

FSSAI must be equipped to implement its mandate. As of 2021, 2,531 Food Safety Officers were trying to regulate millions of street food vendors. States still report millions of unregistered vendors. Capacity needs to be increased to scale outreach efforts. Inspections are to be carried out by state-level authorities; however, as of 2018, most states did not have a dedicated food safety department.

As of 2024, there were only 206 National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accredited laboratories dedicated primarily to food testing. While efforts are being made to enhance testing capabilities by setting up 100 more laboratories, this must be accompanied by adequate recruitment and training as well.

Compared to the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, which have annual budget allocations of USD 1.5 billion, USD 60 million, and USD 49 million respectively, dedicated to food safety, India's budget remains modest.

Even with a projected budget of INR 620 crore (approximately USD 72 million) for 2024–25, which is a substantial increase from INR 239.23 crore in 2020–2021 (approximately USD 28 million), continued investments are needed to scale existing programmes. Food safety must be viewed as a matter of public health, requiring sustained efforts and financial commitment.

Safety First

At the end of the day, keeping street food safe is not solely about rules or enforcement. It is about creating the right conditions for everyone involved. Street food vendors are not simply subjects of regulation; they are custodians of taste and tradition. When given the right knowledge and tools, they can contribute to public health through better practices.

When all parties come together with shared ownership, and when policies support rather than stifle, India can build safe, thriving street food clusters that honour tradition, protect health, and boost local economies.