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You have likely already seen the viral video circulating online showing a person eating noodles directly off a hawker centre table. Now, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has issued a post advising against eating off hawker centre tables.
Many netizens expressed their disgust at the diner’s unhygienic act. “Hawker tables are never clean. The cleaners often reuse the same damp rags over and over again,” a comment read.
Meanwhile, a minority of commenters believe the move was acceptable. “5 sec rule always applies,” another comment said. I always thought it was the 3-second rule…
In response, the Singapore Food Agency made a LinkedIn post saying, “Once food is dropped on an unclean tabletop, the surface of the food item would have been contaminated by bacteria. And there is no such thing as the ‘three second rule’ either…”
Would you eat your food off a hawker centre table? To be honest, I have picked up small bits of food off hawker centre tables when they have fallen off my plate, mainly because I believe that a tiny amount of bacteria likely won’t be harmful. But if it’s as large a portion as that seen in the video, I wouldn’t eat it because that’ll mean a lot of bacteria entering my body, and I wouldn’t want to risk that.
This video made me reflect on whether it’s acceptable to eat food from the hawker centre table, so I conducted a quick poll with my colleagues. Like most netizens online, many of them said that they would never do that. Only 1 colleague had the same answer as me.
Thinking about it again, those who oppose eating off the hawker centre table have a point. While nothing has happened to me after doing that, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Maybe it’s still acceptable to eat from the table at home, since the table is cleaner, but I don’t think I’ll eat food off a hawker centre table again. What do you think?
86 hawker centres & markets closed for spring cleaning in June 2026
