An overview of street food phenomenon

WHAT IS STREET FOOD?

Food meets the street, that's street food. Nothing new, street food has always lived together with traditions, strictly linked with local surroundings and able to avoid the passing influences of the trends that crushed the sector of food, especially during the latest years. 
It's a culinary phenomenon symbiotic with society and it owns its positive trend to the fact that it's able to adapt itself to the needs of the customers, without having to do big changes. 
Nowadays, eating out is often something necessary because of jobs paces, and it's even more associated to spare time, leading to try new cooking trends. From a study by Coldiretti, in 2015 Italians spent 76 billions for out of home meals, and that is a third (35%) on the total amount of food consumption (almost 220 billions euros).

THE FOODTRUCK SET UP

The co-protagonist of the street food is the foodtruck, the mean of transport that gives the concept of the activity. Aesthetics is important so, looking different with the appearance of the foodtruck, choosing a concept having immediate impact able to give value to the food offer, is a basic starting point. New, vintage or three-wheeled, a foodtruck setting up is a hard work, but less expensive than opening a restaurant: according to a report made by IlSole24Ore, a certified customized truck may cost between 20 and 40 thousands euros.

2016 TRENDS

What about the latest trends? How could you innovate your street food business?

1. Local traditions: focusing on tipical dishes, using original local products, linked to the tradition of a Country, a region or a specific area. Giving food an identity enriches the experience that you would like to infuse to the customer;
2. Bio, veg and gluten free: these are the keywords able to guide large retailers and that will arrive in the fields of street food also. Healthy and ethic food attracts an increasing target;
3. Ethnic: a strong megatrend, exotic taste combine with style is able to increase its attraction in the market;
4. Handmade and gourmet ice cream: a trend that is already on top, pushing on naturalness, ingredients, handmade manufacturing and, above all, tastes more and more focused on local style;
5. Motors: an increasing submarket and that includes the customization of vehicles designed for the street food. The market of customized vehicles is able to meet various needs and wants to attract the customer with its design, even before of seducing him with food;
6. Suitable tools: spaces are reduced to the minimum and customers sometimes don't want to wait for food directly on the road. Using tools able to simplify the relationship with the customer, making orders and payments quicker, is really basic. Custom POS Division offers solutions that have been designed also for this sector, as Jsmart, the portable and ultra-compact cash register with the new low-consumption technology, ideal for the products with internal battery.