What Do They Do With The Food On Guy's Grocery Games After Filming?

Like you, we are absolutely here for "Guy's Grocery Games." We get hyped when new contestants enter Flavortown Market, we scream at our TV when someone commits to making risotto in less than 30 minutes (you can't do it; it never works!), and we secretly swoon a little when Guy Fieri winks at the camera, bleached goatee and all. Knowing what we do about grocery stores and excess food, however — supermarkets generated 4.45 million tons of wasted food in 2023 alone — makes us wonder how the Food Network keeps all that gorgeous meat, produce, and other groceries on the shelves from needing its own landfill. While regular grocery stores might recycle old produce into fodder for the salad bar or cook up whole chickens nearing expiration into rotisserie beauties, that isn't really an option for Flavortown Market. After all, it exists solely as the backdrop to a culinary game show. 

Walmart may be the largest grocery store chain in America, but the supermarket on Triple G isn't open to the public ... just contestants cooking against the clock with ridiculous challenges. Luckily, "Guy's Grocery Games" manages waste in a productive way. Every week, it donates fresh food close to expiry to local food banks near the filming location in Santa Rosa, California. Even scraps from contestants' dishes don't hit the trash; instead, they are used to feed livestock at nearby farms.

Did you know that the set of "Guy's Grocery Games" is not, in fact, an actual grocery store? Flavortown Market is actually a 15,000-square foot soundstage that is freshly assembled for filming every season. Like a real grocer, however, it contains tons of items: no fewer than 20,000, in fact. Filming runs Monday through Friday, and Monday morning is stocking time. Like your local Publix, Wegmans, Kroger, or Whole Foods, Triple G has a merchandising team whose job is to replenish the shelves. You know how there are cash registers in the store that are used in games like Budget Battle? Those registers actually help maintain inventory, just like where you shop at home. 

While the best time to buy grocery store produce is usually in the mornings when it is freshly stocked, produce on "Guy's Grocery Games" is put out at the beginning of the week and only topped off when needed. But don't be concerned for anyone eating dishes featured on the show: freshness is the name of the game, and the priority in Flavortown Market is providing the crispest ingredients for chefs to use in their challenges.

If you watch with keen eyes, you'll notice little details on Guy's Grocery Games that help enhance the illusion that contestants are zipping through a real supermarket. These include check-writing platforms at the registers, fake grocery flyers by the door, and "store hours" posted by the entrance, even though they have nothing to do with shooting times.