Food hoarding and cans spoiling

[Tempy]

Hello everyone, this is my first topic on this forum so i'm sorry if i make any mistakes like spelling and so on.

When i start the game i have a habit of setting up a base already (i start in locations like mystery lake and coastal highway) and i collect everything i can from surrounding buildings and that includes lots of food from the cabinets, even though i don't really use all of the food in the first few days i like to have it as ,,backup,, but fast forward to perhaps day 40 or 50 and i'm already overflowing with wolf meat,deer meat,rabbit meat and i also noticed that during my expeditions and going back to my base at the coastal highway, some of my cans basically got ruined (aka they had 0% even though i was sure they were still edible) and i was suprised that canned food can spoil.

My questions are basically this. Is hoarding all that food a good thing or should i leave some houses unchecked so the food won't get spoiled right away ?, also how to make sure my food can be fresh for a long time, is putting it outside a good tactic beacuse of the cold ?

[Doc Feral]

"Industrial" food spoils faster outside, meat spoils way slower. The reverse applies indoors. Don't store food in containers, place it on shelves, your base will look better and food won't disappear when reaching 0% condition. Remember that reaching level 5 in cooking you'll be able to eat everything (apart from raw meat) without worrying. Food spoils anyway, I've opened cargo containers (which should hold many items) only to find a single soda can, meaning all other food had rotted away, and found plenty of 0% items scattered in houses. Late in the game industrial food will be precious travel rations which doesn't attract wolves.

So keep hoarding, and remember crackers and cat tails are eternal, and that rotten raw meat can be cooked to edible.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Doc Feral

[Tempy]

3 hours ago, Doc Feral said:

"Industrial" food spoils faster outside, meat spoils way slower. The reverse applies indoors. Don't store food in containers, place it on shelves, your base will look better and food won't disappear when reaching 0% condition. Remember that reaching level 5 in cooking you'll be able to eat everything (apart from raw meat) without worrying. Food spoils anyway, I've opened cargo containers (which should hold many items) only to find a single soda can, meaning all other food had rotted away, and found plenty of 0% items scattered in houses. Late in the game industrial food will be precious travel rations which doesn't attract wolves.

So keep hoarding, and remember crackers and cat tails are eternal, and that rotten raw meat can be cooked to edible.

If i find a container that is outside (aka a container next to trappers cabin) would it basically mean that all the food would spoil way slower including industrial food ?.

[Doc Feral]

2 hours ago, Hawk said:

According to this Wiki, most 'industrial' food spoils faster inside, with the exception of pinnacle peaches, pork and beans, orange soda, Stacy's grape soda, summit soda, tin of sardines.

It also says it doesn't matter if it's in a container or not.

Maybe that's changed over time and the Wiki needs updating. I don't know. 🙄

 

29 minutes ago, Tempy said:

If i find a container that is outside (aka a container next to trappers cabin) would it basically mean that all the food would spoil way slower including industrial food ?.

Looks like I goofed a little when I assumed only meat benefits from cold. But a container doesn't make any difference in spoiling times. Things on the floor in a house count as "indoors", things in an abandoned backpack near a tree count as "outdoors". The difference is that putting ruined items (such as worn whetstones and sewing kits, or the mysterious piece of ruined fresh leather) in a container causes them to disappear unless they can be harvested and recycled. This is a convenient way to get rid of rubbish, but may cause stored food to disappear when it reaches 0%, denying you the fearless pleasure of eating it anyway. So avoid putting food in containers.

[Guest kristaok]

Last I checked Food in Containers will disappear, so be careful. I store certain Foods inside, others outside. The ones I store inside I place them on top of counters etc., so even when they spoil I can still eat them (this is unhealthy I know) LOL. 

[ajb1978]

As has been mentioned, store everything outside except soda, sardines, peaches, and pork/beans.  As a general rule of thumb though, just store all food outside.  I personally make a point to nitpick about which foods I store indoors vs. outdoors, but if you want to ensure maximum longevity for your food overall, just toss it all in the snow.

Also, raw meat and fish, don't cook it all ahead of time if you don't need to.  Especially large kills like moose and bears, maybe only cook half of it at a time.  Any time you cook raw meat, it regains up to 50% condition.  So if you have raw bear that degrades to 30%, it will be 80% after you cook it.

I personally have a playstyle similar to yours, where I loot everything, then hoard it all at a central location.  I make a point to eat as late in the day as possible, and eat the lowest quality stuff first.  That way if I get food poisoning, I can sleep it off easily.  And by eating the lowest quality stuff first, I ensure nothing goes to waste.

[Mroz4k]

On 5/7/2019 at 1:35 PM, Doc Feral said:

Food spoils anyway, I've opened cargo containers (which should hold many items) only to find a single soda can, meaning all other food had rotted away, and found plenty of 0% items scattered in houses.

This is incorrect. You can still find 100% condition food in containers at day 80. Food inside unchecked containers doesn't spoil, only if you open it first. Neither do the clothes or other perishable items.

What you describe has to be some sort of bug, or you got extremely unlucky.

It does not make sense because all the same food types inside the cargo containers always have the same exact condition. Meaning that it would be impossible to find a single piece of soda can inside because all the sodas would have the same kind of condition, unless it was for example grape soda, the container had it as a single item, and the condition of it was the highest of all the sodas. Still doesnt explain the fact that items inside containers at around day 100 can be found at 100% condition. Items are only generated once you start opening the container.

The only explanation I could think of is that you tried to open the container first, stopped, then left and returned many days later to find the contents spoiled.

It pays to remember to also store all clothes indoors at all times. Storing them outdoors will cause the clothes to get wet and possibly frozen, but at the very least it will destroy their conditions much faster than usually. Same applies to bedrolls. Thus it is unwise to keep bedrolls lying around in outdoor caves. Below a link to the food decay in TLD.

https://thelongdark.fandom.com/wiki/Decay

Edited May 8, 2019 by Mroz4k

[Orion]

It all depends on the complexity, but I will say that some food on the street deteriorates more slowly. For example, a jar of chocolate bars and dog food on the street deteriorate much more slowly than inside. Similarly, with meat. On the street, any type of meat spoils in two times slower than inside or in inventory. If you want I can write the entire list of products that are best stored outside.

[Bronco]

I didn't realize that food in containers could disappear. Good to know. Thanks!

[MrWolf]

I recently tested meat storage with caves - the "2 layer" kind of caves where it's warmer in the back.  I always thought food stored in the back of the cave would have indoor decay rates since things can be cured in the back of caves.  But no - it doesn't make a difference.  I've tried with several caves in different regions.  Meat left outside in the snow, just inside the cave, and in the back of the cave all decay at the same rate.  So if you're living in a cave (not the loading screen type), drop your meat anywhere in the cave.  My tests were before the Steadfast Ranger update, but I doubt it has changed.

Edited May 15, 2019 by MrWolf