Purpose This paper aims to evaluate the profile of food truck consumers at gourmet events, identifying their food preferences and opinions about the provision of safe food by this segment. Design/methodology/approach A total of 750 food truck customers in the city of Curitiba, Brazil, participated in the study. The survey investigated the socio-economic profile of the consumers, the frequency of their food consumption, the criteria for their choice of food trucks, their mean spending value, the method of payment used and the opinion of consumers about food cost and food truck hygiene conditions. Findings Most consumers were female (62.7 per cent), students (31.3 per cent) and with an average age of 29 ± 10 years. Many customers preferred the consumption of salty foods (84.0 per cent), mainly burgers and kabobs. The consumers reported spending between $6.32 and $9.03 during the events, and men spent more money than women (p = 0.000). Both thought that good conditions of hygiene (81.9 per cent), food presentation (46.9 per cent) and service (48.0 per cent) were more important than the product price (19.3 per cent). Consumers thought that the food trucks had an adequate structure (73.5 per cent) and the food handlers (74.4 per cent) had good conditions of hygiene, ensuring the safety of the food sold. Research limitations/implications On account of the convenience sampling in an urban environment, the data cannot be generalized to the entire population of the municipality and to other regions. Originality/value There are few studies with food trucks consumers in Brazil, to this writing the largest sample ever used for this type of research in this country. The results were designed to be used by professionals working in the area.