Italian startup leads street food revolution

An Italian startup based in Milan is seeking to bring the street food industry into the modern age through an innovative new mobile phone app, a media report said on Saturday.

The app, "Streeteat", was launched in Italy in May and has since been downloaded over 10,000 times.

The app is expected to be launched in Spain and Britian later this year and could well expand to Germany and Switzerland shortly after.

"The app geo-localises food trucks across Italy, allowing users to easily find a bite to eat on the go," CEO and founder Giuseppe Castronovo told The Local news.

"But that's not all. The app also allows users to check each food truck's menu, prices, leave their own reviews, and share their own photos of the food."

Food trucks pay an annual fee to be included in the database, but as Castronovo explained, "only the highest quality vendors will be included - by that I mean those selling the most authentic foods made from the highest quality ingredients."

Streeteat currently has a staff of three and employs seven other people externally.

According to Castronovo, the creation and maintenance of the app was fully outsourced - which meant an initial private investment of 150,000 euros ($167,917) was needed to set up the project.