The early Survivors actually had a survival element to them. Not so these days. I think some of the first folks came pretty damn close to suffering some permanent physical damage, so there are a lot more ops for food these days.
I think is was a combination of seasons 1 and 2.
Season 1 had the players catching and eating rats, which resulted in a lot of grief from animal rights wackos.
Season 2 had the players risking their own safety to retrieve a can of rice that had washed away in a storm.
From Season 3 on, the producers started giving them more and more food, both at the start of the game and as "rewards".