Project Zomboid: Control Food Spoilage and Refrigeration

1. Open your server's settings and find the food group.

2. Set the dials:

• Food Spoilage Speed (Very Fast, Fast, Normal, Slow, Very Slow): how fast food spoils, inside or outside a fridge.

• Refrigeration Effectiveness (Very Low, Low, Normal, High, Very High, No Decay): how much a powered fridge slows spoilage. No Decay means refrigerated food keeps forever.

• Nutrition System (on or off): off stops characters gaining or losing weight from what they eat.

• Rotten Food Removal (days) (a number of days, or -1): rotten items are cleaned off the map after this many in-game days. -1 keeps rotten food forever.

1. Save, then restart the server.

Spoilage runs on in-game time. If your complaint is really "our evenings are too short to deal with food", consider a longer Day Length instead; it stretches every in-game day across more real time.

Refrigeration Effectiveness applies to powered fridges and freezers. Once the world's electricity shuts off, fridges stop working unless a generator powers them, and food spoils at the normal rate again. That is the game's survival arc, not a bug. If your group wants fridges forever, keep electricity on (see the utilities article below) or plan for generators.

• Turning spoilage down to un-rot food. Rotten is rotten; the settings shape the future, not the past. Rotten Food Removal (days) will at least clean the mess up.

• Raising Refrigeration Effectiveness after the power shut off. A fridge without power is a cupboard. Bring power back or hook up a generator.

• Restarting without saving. Settings apply on restart, but only after you hit Save.

Ping us on Discord or open a ticket. Tell us how long your group wants fresh food to matter and we will suggest a combination.