Mobile fast food outlets have become increasingly popular in HCM City's streets, but there are concerns about food safety.
The stretch of road between Lotte Mart and Tran Quoc Tuan Primary School on Cong Hoa Street sees dozens of fast food carts.
A fast food cart in HCM City
Tran Thi Vien, a bread seller on Cong Hoa Street, said that every morning she often sells around 120 loaves of bread priced at VND6,000-10,000. Vien said that she is saving up to rent property for her business.
The mobile fast food services have also boomed in many other streets in HCM City, including Tran Hung Dao, Vo Van Tan, Tran Quoc Thao, Huynh Tan Phat and they’re proving extremely popular.
These carts also serve bread, hamburger, hot-dog and drink menu items at just VND15,000-20,000.
Dinh Huu Khoi, a programmer at an IT in District 3, said that he usually buys broken rice or bread from the carts for lunch. He thinks the carts offer good value but does harbour some concerns about food safety.
Coffee, fruit juice and ginseng drinks can be bought for less than 50 US cents a cup.
Not all the carts are run by individuals. Cart franchiser the Dai Phat Company, which owns more than 100 mobile fast food shops in Danang, HCM City and Binh Duong, said that it would be next to impossible to compete with KFC and McDonald's so her firm chose mobile services instead as a niche market.
However, unsurprisingly, the authorities are concerned by their lack of control over the operations of these carts and have expressed concern that they need to be monitored for food safety issues and the effect they have on traffic congestion.
