the illegal sale of street food

If you usually travel by metro around Madrid, especially through the Plaza Elíptica or Oporto stations, it is likely that you have come across the scene: You leave the stop and suddenly you smell an intense smell of roast meat that makes you salivate and a voice that announces ’empanadas’, ‘humitas’ or ‘stuffed potatoes’. It is not a matter of any bar in the area determined to offer its merchandise to passengers, but rather the business of street vendors (normally immigrants, with and without papers) who have made the surroundings of the stations your particular market.

It is not something anecdotal. Its activity has grown so much that Hospitality of Spain (HDE) already warns of its risks.

Looking for life. That there are street vendors who have turned Madrid stations and their surroundings into improvised markets is nothing new. Nor that part of those merchants are dedicated to food. Long before the pandemic it was possible find people selling hot empanadas around La Elipa, just as other vendors were dedicated to offering counterfeit football shirts, handbags, belts or sunglasses.

In 2024 ABC he even dedicated an extensive report to a group of Peruvians who were selling in the subway Bon Bon Bum lollipopa sweet from the Colombina brand. Despite the control of the security guards, there were 50 immigrants who made a living from this business, a task that they organized through WhatsApp and to which they dedicated up to 15 hours each day. They obtained the Chups through a “completely legal store,” argued one of them, who claimed not to understand why the authorities seized their merchandise.

What has changed? That far from slowing down or stagnating, the irregular street sale of food in the area of ​​certain metro stations seems to have worsened in recent years. So revealed it a few days ago Alfredo Herrera in The Confidentialin a chronicle in which he describes the activity of several street vendors who sell their merchandise (especially empanadas, potatoes, soft drinks and ice cream) to passengers leaving the Plaza Elíptica, Entrevías, Oporto stations or even the Alcalá de Henares Renfe terminal.

In hot and cold, rain or wind. These are usually Latin American immigrants. Some have papers. Others don’t and doubt they will ever be able to get them. They buy the merchandise from suppliers, relatives or prepare it themselves at home and then transport it in boxes or thermal refrigerators with which they are installed outside the stations, exposed to the sun, heat, cold, rain or wind.

They strive to capture passengers leaving and entering the terminals because they know that the security provided by Metro can cause problems if they move their business inside. They charge in cash, although there are also those who accept payments via Bizum.

“There are more and more”. Another of the ideas that leaves you bouncing the report of The Confidential The thing is that for many of them it is not a specific way of making a living. Some admit that they have been subsisting basically on street food sales for years.

“I dedicate myself to this because I don’t have papers and it’s difficult to get them. Nothing has ever come of me in hospitality. I have to live off of something and this is a good option for those of us who don’t have documentation, which is why there are more and more people doing the same thing,” comments Juana 29-year-old Colombian who has been selling food for two years. “When I started there were very few of us, now the number of street vendors throughout Madrid has increased.”

More than 1,200 euros per month. Her testimony is similar to that of Camila, Peruvian, 39 years old. Since he arrived in Spain, more or less in 2023, he has basically dedicated himself to selling food at a station on the Renfe network in the Community of Madrid. Recognize that it is removed more than 1,200 euros per month, but at the cost of working more than 10 hours a day at the door of a station and exposing themselves to the police confiscating their merchandise and suddenly losing goods worth more than 100 euros. It’s already happened to him.

She assures that she registered as self-employed to regularize her business, but that only allows her to “move food, not sell it.” He is already looking for another job in bars and restaurants, although he also admits that to date “nothing has come of it.”

“Absolute irregularity”. Proof that street food sales have increased in recent years is that it is already worrying Hospitality of Spainan association that brings together thousands of companies in the restaurant sector.

Its general secretary, Emilio Gallego, warns that businesses like Juan’s or Camila’s represent a “absolute irregularity” and insists that “the least important thing” is that the bars and cafes in the neighborhoods where these street vendors work may lose customers. “The main problem lies in the violation of food safety,” he emphasizes after recalling that legal catering businesses must adhere to “more rigorous and strict” regulations than local ones.

The big risk: poisoning. “In addition, these sales fail to comply with trade, tax and labor regulations. Not to mention that they can even constitute a crime for public health if someone suffers from poisoning,” duck.

He is not the only one who emphasizes that last point. Experts remember how difficult it is to control the origin and traceability of a food that is sold outside legal channels. It may smell good, it may even be tasty, but… Where did the ingredients come from? Have they been kept at a good temperature? What about allergens? What if there is poisoning?

“Serious impact”. On its official website the Madrid City Council remember which develops campaigns dedicated precisely to the “fight against illegal street sales, especially of food and beverages.” Its latest data is from 2020, which is blurred by the pandemic, but before that the number of minutes Raised by cases of irregular street vending (in general, not just food) was increasing clearly: From 16,518 in 2018, the following year it rose to more than 17,100.

The Madrid City Council also remember that, beyond labor and tax regulations, there is state, regional and municipal legislation that directly regulates street commerce.

Beyond the seasons. The increase in street food sales in Madrid coincides with another equally important phenomenon, especially if the type of merchandise and who sells it is taken into account: the boom in Latin immigration.

At the end of 2024, the Community of Madrid registered a historical milestone: The original population of Latin America exceeded one million people, a considerable number if two pieces of information are taken into account. First, just 25 years before that group was around 81,500 people. Second, it represents a considerable part of the region’s population: one in seven population.

Image | Eleni Afiontzi (Unsplash)

Via | The Confidential

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