I will say, spoiling food DOES add immersion in the sense that it is more realistic. Also, you get so much food right now in BG3, spoiling some wouldn't be all THAT bad... In theory. And if food just vanished from your inventory when spoiled, notifying you that X amount of camping supplies spoiled, that wouldn't be too bad.
Still, you create the "I should just rest as soon as I have enough food" issue. I don't know how you'd get around that. I suppose some sort of preservation Survival check might work and it WOULD create more purpose for the skill. Right now, there isn't much use for it, so that would be good.
What if skill check is automatic when you rest, and the higher the game has you roll, the more you preserve? So, roll 5-9, only 25% preserved of the perishable foods. 10-14 = 50%. 15-19 = 75%. 20+ = 100%.
Hmm. That might work. I kinda like that. Plus, it's automatic, so it doesn't require extra clicks.
I would go for this too: I would also add in a mechanic where if you spend a small amount of food while taking a short rest you get a bonus to HP recovery or something like that. This way you are encouraged to keep some food with you rather than send everything back to camp.
So, gaining a boost to recovery by spending food for SR.
I still want something for SR at the character level as opposed to the hard 2/day limit so I can heal only those I want to heal during SR. Or, maybe in combination of your idea, each PC has 2/day SR limit and can spend food for additional healing and maybe even after the 2/day, players can continue SR by spending extra food. I don't know. Just throwing out ideas.
I like where you are going with this, though. The preserve food mechanic would certainly be a game changer for your idea. That would then not promote frequent long rest.
