‘Please don’t do this’: SFA responds to video of diner eating food directly from hawker centre table

SFA says food will be contaminated by bacteria once it touches an unclean table

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has advised diners not to eat food that has been dropped on the table, in response to a viral video of someone doing just that.

In a TikTok video posted on 27 May, the diner is seen picking up food directly from the table and putting it in her mouth.

Diner drops food on table, picks it up & eats it anyway

The clip, ostensibly recorded in a local hawker centre, showed the woman grasping noodles lying on the table with her chopsticks.

This is despite at least two full plates of food on her table.

The morsel appeared to have fallen onto the surface as she and her companions were eating.

Despite the food slipping out of her grasp and falling back onto the table, she picked it up again.

She then appeared to put the food into her mouth anyway.

In the caption, the original poster (OP) asked: “Would you put your food on the table, like on a plate, even though you’ve already cleared it?”

Netizens disgusted by clip

The clip, which received almost 18,000 views on TikTok, was reshared on Reddit, to the revulsion of many netizens who watched it.

One quipped that she was trying to build up her immune system.

Another said that they would not do this outside but might do it at home, as they know that their table has been cleaned.

A user pointed out that a lot of people would also put their cutlery on trays and tables.

Finally, a commenter cited the “five-second rule” — referring to the belief that it’s safe to eat dropped food if it is picked up within 5 seconds. Some people refer to it as the “three-second rule”.

SFA urges public not to eat food off table

However, in a LinkedIn post on Sunday (21 June), SFA debunked this, saying there is “no such thing as the three-second rule”.

Sharing 8days’ article on the viral video, it urged the public not to eat off hawker centre tables.

Once food is dropped on an unclean table, the surface of the morsel will be contaminated by bacteria, SFA explained.

Also read: Stallholder cleans tables with ‘broom’ at Yuhua Hawker Centre, clarifies that it was a new brush

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Featured image adapted from @rina57521 on TikTok.