Editing Food

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{{Stub|reason=Needs detail on mechanics e.g. nutrition etc.}}
{{For|a more in-depth guide to farming and producing food|Food production}}
{{For|information on hunger|Saturation}}
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'''Food''' is the basic source of nutrition to both [[human]]s and [[animals]]. Consuming food provides [[saturation]]. Deprivation of food leads to [[malnutrition]] and, if prolonged, [[death]].

== Summary ==
Food is measured in units of [[nutrition]]. Most raw foods, as well as certain cooked foods like [[pemmican]], give 0.05 nutrition per unit. Prepared [[meal]]s, such as [[simple meal]]s or [[lavish meal]]s, generally give 0.9 or 1.0 nutrition. 

Baseline adult [[human]]s require {{Q|Human|Real Hunger Rate}} [[nutrition]] per day to avoid being hungry. They can "store" 1.0 nutrition at any one time. As they start to eat while they are "hungry" (0.25 [[saturation]]), certain types of meals are subject to [[overeating]]. A rough baseline of 2 meals per day, or 32 units of pemmican/raw food, is required to feed a person.

By default, colonists will eat the tastiest valid food; from Lavish to Raw. Certain [[trait]]s or ideology [[precept]]s{{IdeologyIcon}} may change their priorities. You can control what foods colonists are able to eat in the [[Assign]] tab. You can also select a colonist's or prisoner's food policy in the Health tab.

=== Raw food ===
{{For|a list of raw food items| Raw food}}
Food found in its natural stage is raw. Most raw foods will give the {{--|7}} ''Ate Raw Food'' [[mood]]let to an ordinary colonist. All raw food comes with an innate chance of [[food poisoning]]. [[Milk]], [[berries]], and [[insect jelly]] can be eaten without mood penalty, but can still give food poisoning.

You can cook food into [[meal]]s at an [[electric stove]], [[fueled stove]] or [[campfire]], or process it at a [[nutrient paste dispenser]]. In addition to tasting better, cooked food allows you to get more nutrition off the same amount of raw food. For example, a [[simple meal]] costs 0.5 nutrition to make, but gives 0.9 nutrition when eaten - or 180% more food.

Raw food can be obtained from a variety of sources:
* [[plants|Wild bushes]] can be [[harvest]]ed to give [[agave]] and [[berry bush|berries]]. 
* [[Growing zone]]s can be used to plant [[Rice plant|rice]], [[Potato plant|potatoes]], [[Corn plant|corn]], [[Strawberry plant|strawberries]] and [[haygrass]] (for domesticated animals).
** [[Hydroponics basin]]s can also be used to plant rice, potatoes or strawberries, and grows them at a considerably increased rate.
* Meat is obtained from fresh non-mechanoid corpses, whether hunted or if they died via other means. [[Human resources|Corpses]] may be eaten raw or butchered at a [[butcher table]].
* Occasional drops from [[Events#Cargo Pods|cargo pods]].

== Degradation ==
[[File:Food has rotted away in storage.png|thumb|right|{{asof|A15}} there is a message telling you when food has spoiled.]]
Food will be destroyed if left unattended by two entirely separate factors: exposure and temperature.

* Items dropped in an area without a [[roof]] will [[deteriorate]] over time, and lose item HP.

* Storing food in temperatures above {{Temperature|0}} will spoil over time. Temperatures below {{Temperature|10}} will slow down spoiling by a factor of <code>1/temp</code> in Celsius. See [[Temperature#Temperature_Thresholds|Temperature]] for details. 
** In the early game, food spoilage can pose a threat if located on warm [[biomes]]. A freezer room can be created by placing enough [[cooler]]s in proportion to its size - the bigger the storage, the more coolers required.

For example: a [[raider]] is killed and drops a fine meal outdoors, while temperature is below freezing. The meal will not spoil, but it will still ''deteriorate'', and lose HP. Conversely, a meal stored indoors at room temperature will spoil rather than deteriorating.

Once spoiled, food will vanish and can never be recovered. However, food can be eaten at any stage before spoiling with no negative effect. Food poisoning comes from other sources, such as a messy kitchen, an unskilled cook, or eating raw food.

== Analysis ==
As a rough rule of thumb - 25 tiles of [[rice plant|rice]] / [[potato plant|potatoes]] / [[corn plant|corn]], in ordinary soil, is enough to feed a single colonist in [[difficulty|Losing is Fun]] indefinitely, when:

# They are cooked into and eaten as [[simple meal]]s.
# A grower's Plants skill is competent; 6 Plants is enough.
# Crops are harvested reasonably quickly. 25 tiles gives a little extra food in case of emergency, but assumes that Growing is priority #1 in the [[Work]] tab.
# Your colony has a year-round growing season.

20 tiles of rice/corn in ''rich soil'' (not potatoes) is also enough to feed a colonist, in the same conditions, with some food in reserve. A higher [[difficulty]] reduces plant yield; if playing in difficulties lower than Losing is Fun, then you technically need less crop to survive. If your biome doesn't have a winter, then just plant your tiles of rice, and you don't really have to worry about managing food unless [[toxic fallout]] happens.

=== Food crop comparison ===
Of the three "main" food crops:

* {{Icon Small|Rice|24}} [[Rice]] grows quickly, but gives the least per harvest. Rice is stable; since each individual rice harvest is small, a [[blight]] will not impact a rice harvest as much as it does with other crops. However, because it needs to be harvested more often, you will need more work for the same amount of food. Due to its grow speed, it is a great food to plant at the beginning of the game, or as a "last harvest" when winter is fast approaching.
* {{Icon Small|Corn|24}} [[Corn]] is the opposite of rice. It grows slowly, but gives the most per harvest. It needs to be harvested much less frequently, meaning corn takes much less work than rice. However, your corn harvest will be impacted more by disasters like blight and fire. Corn cannot be grown in [[hydroponics]].
* {{Icon Small|Potatoes|24}} [[Potatoes]] are in the middle in terms of speed, harvest size, and work. Potatoes are notable for their low Fertility Sensitivity, meaning the quality of soil impacts them much less. They are great if you are forced to plant in stony soil or gravel, but bad to grow in rich soil or hydroponics.

Rice, corn, and potatoes give roughly the same amount of food per day per plant, assuming regular soil is used. Rice is ever so slightly higher than the other 2 crops.

Of the other available crops:

* {{Icon Small|Berries|24}} [[Strawberry plant]]s give less food per day than any of the three food crops. It grows faster than potatoes, but slower than rice. Its niche is that strawberries can be eaten raw without a mood penalty, but this is rarely useful given that cooking food into [[meal]]s will net you more effective food.
* {{Icon Small|Hay|24}} [[Hay]] is inedible to humans, but gives the most food per day of all plants. Slightly less work efficient per than corn. Hay can also be used for [[straw matting]].
* {{Icon Small|Raw fungus|24}} [[Nutrifungus]]{{IdeologyIcon}} is almost identical to potatoes; it grows slightly slower in regular soil, but has even less Fertility Sensitivity (slightly better in rough soil). Nutrifungus' benefit is that it ''has'' to be grown in complete darkness. This means that you can grow crops indoors, even during the winter, without having to use a power hungry [[sun lamp]]. As another benefit, nutrifungus is completely immune to [[blight]]. However, most [[ideoligion]]s give {{--|3}} for ''Ate Cooked Fungus''. [[Tunneler (meme)|Tunnelers]] enjoy eating fungus and despise any other plant. Tunnelers can construct [[fungal gravel]] to create fertile soil under their mountains.
* {{Icon Small|Toxipotato|24}} [[Toxipotato]]es{{BiotechIcon}} have no fertility sensitivity at all, and are the only food source that can be planted in polluted terrain. They provide strictly inferior food per work and per day to the standard potato, but do reach full growth between one and three days quicker depending on the terrain.{{Check Tag|Early harvest?|Does this matter? Does harvesting a potato early at the same time a toxipotato is ready impose a yield multiplier of 63% or lower (i.e. sufficient to drop potato yield of 11 to toxipot yield of 7)? If not, still better to grow pots instead}} They have double the chance to cause food poisoning when eaten raw.

== Comparison table ==
<div><li style="display: inline-table;">
{{#ask:[[Type::Food]] | mainlabel=- | sort=Nutrition | order=descending | headers=plain | class=sortable c_03 text-center table
 | ?Image # 16px=
 | ?=Name
 | ?Nutrition
 | ?Taste
 | ?Deterioration Rate Base=Deterioration<br/>rate (per day)
 | ?Days To Start Rot Base=Days to Rot
}}
</li></div>

== Version history ==
* [[Version/0.8.657|0.8.657]] - Now spoils without refrigeration
* [[Version/0.9.722|0.9.722]] - Food poisoning added. [[Skills#Cooking|Bad cooks]] are more likely to accidentally poison meals.

{{Nav|Food|wide}}
[[Category:Items]]