HOSTING three and a half hours of live morning television is no easy feat - particularly on an empty stomach.

Seven presenter Edwina Bartholomew, who's taken over the hosting reins with Matt Doran while Sam Armytage and David Koch are on holidays, found that out the hard way during this morning's program.

As Doran wrapped up a very serious interview with a Canberra correspondent about Australia's war preparedness, he threw to his co-host: "Over to you, Eddie".

The camera cut straight to Bartholomew, chewing a mouth full of food and obviously not camera-ready as Doran tried to cover up the mistake.

"Oh - uh - apologies, we're going to go straight to the break here on Sunrise," he stammered, as Bartholomew shielded her face with her hand.

A blink-and-you'll-miss-it blooper, but one the summer hosts couldn't resist teasing each other about on social media later in the morning.

"Breakfast television, where apparently no one is safe," wrote Doran, posting footage of the moment on Instagram.

"Poor Eddie, simply trying to enjoy a harmless brekky wrap, and then ... Sorry @Edwinab!"

Over on Twitter, Bartholomew acknowledged the gaffe - tweeted out by Sunrise's own official account - with the perfectly pithy response: "Literal definition of egg on face."

Just before Christmas we brought you the epic, 15-minute video collating all of 2017's best and most hilarious newsreader bloopers - it seems we've just got our first contender for the 2018 edition.