Editing Nutrient paste meal

{{Infobox main|food
| name = Nutrient paste meal
| image = Nutrient paste meal a.png
| description = A synthetic mixture of protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins, amino acids and minerals. Everything the body needs, and absolutely disgusting.
<!-- Base Stats -->
| type = Food
| type2 = Meal
| hp = 50
| deterioration = 10
| marketvalue = 10
| mass base = 0.44
| flammability = 1
| stack limit = 10
| path cost = 14
<!-- Ingestion -->
| taste = Awful
| ingested direct thought = AteNutrientPasteMeal
| max num to ingest at once = 1
| days to rot = 0.75
| nutrition = 0.9
<!-- Creation -->
| work to make = 0
| production facility 1 = Nutrient paste dispenser
| resource 1 = Nutrition
| resource 1 type = any
| resource 1 amount = 0.3
<!-- Technical -->
| defName = MealNutrientPaste
| preferability = Awful
<!-- Unused -->
| always haulable = true
| draw gui overlay = true
| eat effect = EatVegetarian
| graphic class = Graphic_Single
| graphic path = Things/Item/Meal/NutrientPaste
| label = nutrient paste meal
| parent name = MealRottable
| resource readout priority = Last
| selectable = true
| social properness matters = true
| sound eat = Meal_Eat
| thing class = Meal
| ticker type = Rare
| use hit points = true
}}
{{Info|A '''nutrient paste meal''' is produced from a [[nutrient paste dispenser]], using raw food ingredients.}}

==Acquisition==
Nutrient paste meals are created at a [[power]]ed [[nutrient paste dispenser]] instantly, using 0.3 [[nutrition]] of any food inside its [[hopper]]s. Typically, nutrient paste meals are dispensed by a hungry pawn and then immediately eaten; they can't be produced by work bill, and animals won't use a dispenser.

These meals can't normally be stockpiled. Should the pawn dispensing the meal be interrupted between dispensing and eating the meal, they will drop it. This is done by limiting a pawn's area restriction to just a nutrient paste dispenser, or by simply drafting them. This behavior can be exploited to stockpile meals, but their short shelf life of 0.75 days means they should be immediately frozen. See [[Nutrient_paste_dispenser#Manually_producing_meals|Nutrient paste dispenser]] for a more in-depth strategy.

==Summary==
A nutrient paste meal can be eaten for 0.9 [[nutrition]]. As paste takes 0.3 nutrition to make, it has a nutrition efficiency of 300%. Nutrient paste cannot cause [[food poisoning]].

When consumed, nutrient paste gives a {{Thought|desc=I had to eat a disgusting, tasteless meal. I know it keeps you alive, but nobody wants to swallow that glop.|label=Ate awful meal|value=−4|stack=1|duration=1}}. This mood penalty is not applied to [[Ascetic]] pawns and those with the [[Ideoligion#Eating_nutrient_paste|Eating Nutrient Paste: Don't Mind]]{{IdeologyIcon}} ideoligious precept. If the meal was made out of [[insect meat]] or [[human meat]], their respective moodlets will be applied. If [[Ideology DLC]] is active and the meal was made out of [[raw fungus]], its normal moodlet will also be applied.

== Analysis ==
Nutrient paste is the most efficient way to prepare a meal, noticeably better than [[simple meal|simple]] and [[fine meal]]s (180% efficiency). This makes nutrient paste useful in a famine, even if you don't plan to use it indefinitely. In addition, no cooking is necessary. This avoids [[food poisoning]] entirely and can save a lot of time off a cook's hands. Nutrient paste is a poor choice for [[caravan]]s, given how quickly nutrient paste spoils and the tedious micro required to make stacks of them.
 
However, nutrient paste meals give a -4 [[mood]] debuff, which ends up being -9 net mood compared to [[fine meal]]s. It is advised to not give nutrient paste to pawns with a [[trait]] that gives a negative modifier to mental break threshold, because they can push a pawn over the edge. Because pawns prefer normal meals over nutrient paste, you can set restrictions to prevent normal pawns from consuming all of the good meals, leaving them to the volatile ones.

Nutrient paste is also the most efficient [[animal]] food, who don't care about [[mood]], assuming it can eat the full 0.9 nutrition without [[Saturation#Rounding_Error_and_Eating_Thresholds|overeating]]. But using it as such requires a pawn to manually produce nutrient paste meals, since animals can't use the dispenser.

The mood penalty is negated if the colonist eating it has a precept "Eating Nutrient paste" as "Don't mind" for their [[Ideoligion]]{{IdeologyIcon}}, making it a powerful choice for day-to-day work flow.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Nutrient paste meal a.png|One nutrient paste meal
Nutrient paste meal b.png|Partial stack
Nutrient paste meal c.png|Full stack
</gallery>
<gallery>
Carnivore nutrient paste meal a.png|One carnivore nutrient paste meal
Carnivore nutrient paste meal b.png|Partial stack
Carnivore nutrient paste meal c.png|Full stack
</gallery>
<gallery>
Vegetarian nutrient paste meal a.png|One vegetarian nutrient paste meal
Vegetarian nutrient paste meal b.png|Partial stack
Vegetarian nutrient paste meal c.png|Full stack
</gallery>

== Version history ==
* [[Version/0.3.410|0.3.410]] - Pawns now try to eat nice meals when they have the choice over nutrient meals.
* Beta 19/1.0 - Traders will no longer accept typical short-life meals, including nutrient paste meals.
* [[Version/1.4.3523|1.4.3523]] - [[Ascetic]]s no longer get a negative mood debuff when eating nutrient paste meals.
<gallery>
Nutrient paste meal old.png|Texture before introduction of carnivore and vegetarian variant
Nutrient Paste Meal Old.png|Texture as of some version before 1.0.2096 
</gallery>

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[[Category:Food]] [[Category:Processed Food]] [[Category:Meal]]