Food

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Food is the basic source of nutrition to both humans and animals. Lack of it leads to hunger which can be tracked by a pawn's food meter known as saturation and a long excessive depravation leads to starvation.

Raw Food

For a list of raw food items, see Raw Food.

Food found in its natural stage is raw, fruits can be consumed without cooking but vegetables and meat will taste better for the colonist when prepared. Raws can still be consumed without being heated but causes the Ate raw food thought with a -7 mood penalty. Eating raw food restores 0.05 saturation each. Foods cooked on a stove turns into meals, later on it can be processed at the nutrient paste dispenser as well.

Raw food can be harvested from a variety of plants:

• Wild bushes give agave and raspberry.
• Growing zones can be used to plant rice, potatoes, corn, strawberries and haygrass (for domesticated animals).

Degradation

Food will spoil if placed in warm areas. This can cause unhappiness by creating an ugly environment and can turn large food stockpiles into rotting messes. Food spoils faster when exposed to various environmental changes in temperature and weather. This can be solved by either settling in a naturally colder place or by creating an freezer room with coolers. In the early game, this can pose a threat for some players, depending on what biome they are in, making a small freezer a pretty high priority for most players.

As of version 0.9.722 (19 February 2015) items not placed under a roof will deteriorate. Freezing or refrigeration alone do not prevent deterioration of food (i.e. a raider dies and drops their fine meal outdoors during freezing weather, that meal will still decay from deterioration). Deterioration can be prevented by storing items under a roof, which may be a constructed roof, a thin rock roof, or an overhead mountain.

Items in the table below with deterioration rate 0.00/d do not deteriorate.

As of version 0.15.1279 (29 August 2016) there is a message telling you when food has spoiled.

Food deterioration rates
Food item	Deterioration rate (per day)
Raw meat	10.00
Raw vegetables	10.00
Beer	0.00
Packaged survival meal	0.5
Nutrient Paste Meal	20.00
Simple meal	20.00
Fine Meal	20.00
Lavish Meal	20.00