Street food is ready-to-eat food or drink sold in a street or other public place, such as a market or fair, by a hawker or vendor, often from a portable stall. While some street foods are regional, many are not, having spread beyond their region of origin. Most street foods are also classed as both finger food and fast food, and are cheaper on average than restaurant meals. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 2.5 billion people eat street food every day.

Street food is intimately connected with take-out, junk food, snacks, and fast food; it is distinguished by its local flavour and by being purchased on the street, without entering any building. Both take-out and fast food are often sold from counters inside buildings.

Concerns of cleanliness and freshness often discourage people from eating street food. With the increasing pace of globalization and tourism, the safety of street food has become one of the major concerns of public health, and a focus for governments and scientists to raise public awarenesses. In the United Kingdom, the FSA provides comprehensive guidances of food safety for the vendors, traders and retailers of the street food sector. Other effective ways of enhancing the safety of street foods are through mystery shopping programs, through training and rewarding programs to vendors, through regulatory governing and membership management programs, or through technical testing programs.