Street food markets are important for local economic development, but they must also meet visitors’ demands while operating. Since consumers’ trust is based on their perception on different aspects of these markets, the aim of this work was to study which factors most affected their purchase decision criteria. A total of 950 surveys were collected in 21 street markets (Canary Islands, Spain), recording data from the consumers’ estimation on food safety-related items (i.e., hygiene conditions of market installations, products, and food handlers) as well as other categories (i.e., prices and staff professionalism). The gathered data let us determine whether sociodemographic consumers variables like age, gender, or education level influenced their perceptions. The scores showed a strong correlation, the subsequent principal components analysis explained 81% of variability only with the first two components. The level of tolerance toward all items underlies in the first component, which was significantly higher for those aged 60 and older, but no significant correlation was found for gender or level of education. The youngest participants were more demanding about food safety-related aspects, while the middle-aged group was more critical of prices. This was especially true of females, who demanded better quality:price ratios. Knowing these preferences could facilitate the development of more effective marketing strategies, helping make street markets more competitive.

This survey-based study evaluates the effect of three factors (market location, kind of stall facilities and presence of intermediaries) on the hygienic-sanitary quality of markets, which could condition the food risk of the artisanal cheeses sold in them. As street vending in the Canaries archipelago is important tocommercialise traditional reference products, thisstudy compares the hygienic-sanitary conditions of stalls in several street markets on the Gran CanariaIsland by taking artisanal cheese as a reference product. The results show that the markets in coastal areas obtain a higher food sellers score than those in inland areas. Presence of permanent stalls allows the hygienic-sanitary criteria set out by law on street sales to be better applied than markets with temporary stalls. The former obtain much higher scores than the latter. Finally, presence of intermediaries made the survey scores drastically lower, but theywere higher when producers ranstalls. Facilitating the staff in this sector access to specialised training is fundamental. This is the main problem faced in such businesses, followed by asking competent authorities to collaborate more to ensure that current legislation is met, and to protect and improve traditional sales as their importance in society and today's economy in many regions is vital.