ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how media production workers construct, understand and justify their representation and performance of food politics. It presents the on-screen representation of food waste in MasterChef Australia, media workers’ justifications of production practices in relation to food waste, and the structural impact of the design of on-screen challenges. Historically, food waste has been most prominent as a political issue during wartime. MasterChef Australia is often criticised for its emphasis on spectacle, drama and conspicuous consumption. Beyond producer, retailer and consumer practices, media institutions play a powerful role in both the construction of discourses of food waste and the circulation of ‘waste matter’ through their production routines. The practices of food media production have environmental impacts through the type and volume of food procured for the production, the design of competitions, and the ways in which surplus food is managed.
