Not sure if I understand food preference..

[Bovine]

I started a new game as Tilapi and noticed early on I was taking a hit on food pref, so I tried restricting them to east just apples, meat, eggs. That seemed to work until now..I'm around 86 people, and food pref went from in the 90s to the 60s. My warehouse only stocks those 3 things though, all of which are 'preferred'. I don't have any crates for any other food, do some members of a race randomly prefer some other food, or is it maybe the lack of drink?

Hm..seems after not long..3 in game days, it went back to the 90s again. I had plenty of all 3 types of food though, over 30 days stored. Not sure why it would dip randomly like that. 1 central warehouse with the food..stalls right next to it and houses all close by that. It's done that about 3 cycles now. When food pref dips, 'rations' also dips, then they both go back.

hmm I think I confused rationmaker with 'rations' which is the amount of food they eat. Seems like they can only eat more at a food place, and my food place dipped to 90% access. I'm guessing that's the root of the problem then :)

[fortydayweekend]

I might be wrong but I think they also choose a single favourite food each time they're hungry, from that list of preferred options. So if you run out of one food you will get a hit every time that food is randomly chosen, even if their other preferred foods are still available.

[Bovine]

I was never out of food, seems like the ration quantity is tied heavily to 'food preference' stat, I always have a healthy amount in the warehouse, but if I don't have ration amount set to 2x, then food preference goes down due to rations going down. I guess they 'prefer' 2 rations, therefore if you don't provide it, that preference stat is going down.

[Solanix]

Food pref can only be gotten from food stalls or restaurants. So if your food stalls can't keep fully stock during rush hour, or say you send oddjobbers to the other side of the map to forage where no service is available, expect that rating to drop.

[Bovine]

the 'access' stat on the market and foodstall is between 99 and 100, so I assume they're making it there. the 'food ration' is 25% though becuase it's set to 1, so that seems to be the main problem, other than moving that from 1 to 2 rations and losing 50% of my days of food, is there any other way to raise it?

[Lord Coggswaffle YT]

Food ration will always be at 25% at 1. It's typically not an issue til much later, as raising that value will make your food reserves collapse quickly if you're not ready for that. Food preference is mainly tied to your food stalls/restaurants, and they will grab what they want/need from one assuming it has stock. Make sure they are big enough for the area they are placed (heavy pop density needs to be better staffed/sized than a light density one), and are close enough to a stockpile that is flush with the food types that the locals like.

[PassionGemini]

Usually food preference only drops if your people cant access one of their preferenced foods or if they have to travel far to access it. when jobs go into the negative, the game will tend to pull people from other jobs to spread people across the board. Foodstalls tend to only need 1 or 2 people but this pull doesnt really care for needs so it will steal that 1 to 2 people to fill other jobs. This causes food preference drops as less people means less food being brought to the stalls.
Also if you have any mines or farms or fisheries in far off areas, make sure that they have a food stall close by as distance tends to affect most things in this game.