Using chocolate in a caravan

[Hamstadini]

I’ve got a guy in a caravan with five horses, a lot of kibble, like 42 survival meals, 50 chocolate, and various and sundry trading goods. He’s made a tour of four allied towns so far. He’s on his sixth day and recreation deprived. I thought he would eat the chocolate but he’s refusing. Even when I put a food restriction that’s chocolate only, he’d rather starve.

The rimworld wiki says that chocolate is used in caravans as recreation, but I don’t see that happening. I will note that I used drop pods to get him and the goods to the first town. Did that categorize the chocolate as a “good” and not a “food” somehow?

[Astasia]

The wiki is wrong or misleading on that page. The recreation options in caravans are passive Solitary and Social gains when resting, and Social only works with 2 or more colonists in a caravan. The very low expectations means this is usually enough as long as you send at least 2 colonists. It's one of the multiple reasons single colonist caravans are best avoided when possible.

On mission maps or if you settle a tile you can have them eat chocolate to get their recreation back up a bit, but in caravan mode it's not a thing. Chocolate isn't "food" as far as nutrition goes (even though it does have a nutrition value) so colonists refuse to eat it in caravans, just like they will starve if chocolate is the only thing in your colony and you don't force them to eat it.

[VitaKaninen]

There is a mod that allows you to ration chocolate the same as you would drugs so that they will eat it when their recreation is low.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2792510139