There’s one question MasterChef Australia: Back To Win 2025 fans are all asking: what happens to the leftover food?
A viewer recently pointed out that for every single challenge, the cooks open up new bags of rice, bottles of salt, oil and more — instead of using the previously opened items. So, what does production do with all the food that’s barely touched?
MasterChef Australia 2024 contestant Juan De La Cruz tells Chattr production actively looks to “prevent food waste” on set, and combats this in a number of ways.
“Sometimes lots of food is donated to a charity called Second Chance and also the staff behind the cameras takes some [home],” Juan reveals. “I also remember sometimes by the end of the week, all the fresh food from the pantry such as veggies, fruits and even some meat was up for grabs. So we would take ingredients to practice ideas during the weekend.”
He tells us that after the very first challenge, he was left with a bunch of cheese balls that didn’t get served to the judges. Apparently, they were a hot item in the MasterChef Australia kitchen!
“The production team [told me the] next day that they fought for them,” he says cheekily.
Why don’t MasterChef Australia 2025 contestants reuse pantry ingredients?
It’s a little bit strange that the MasterChef Australia 2025 contestants have to open a new bottle of oil for each challenge, but Juan says there’s a simple explanation.
“Opening a new package gives a same start level to everyone,” he says. “Think humidity in the flour, or even contamination from other ingredients that could ruin recipes.
“Ultimately, the judges will eat this food, and they want to prevent any type of contamination.”
Makes sense. With so many mysterious disappearances on MasterChef Australia already, we don’t want to see the judges get sick and go missing either!
MasterChef Australia airs on Sunday at 7pm and Monday – Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel 10 and 10Play.
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