Why is space radiation so effective at preventing Food Poisoning? An observation.

[blakemw]

So anyone who has ever tried skipping hand washing facilities in a Spacefarer, will observe that the duplicant never ever gets food poisoning.

I originally thought this was because the radiation would zap the germs off the food before the dupes could get it in their mouth: but how it actually seems to work is that if the food is not germy by the time the duplicant finishes eating it, they get no food poisoning exposure, this gives even a small amount of radiation quite a lot of time to work on zapping the germs off the food.

[Tranoze]

8 hours ago, blakemw said:

So anyone who has ever tried skipping hand washing facilities in a Spacefarer

I put hand washing there just for the morale bonus, but disable it as it is not needed in anyway. Unless you play terra giant asteroid, all normal small asteroid are small enough so that normal radiation penetrate the whole base, it is not needed to refuel hand washing with bleachstone or water.

[Gurgel]

For large asteroids, you can place doors made from uranium at strategic locations. I usually have one under the food storage and putting them under the mess tables may work as well, although I have not tried that.

[Sasza22]

On 11/6/2022 at 10:34 PM, blakemw said:

I originally thought this was because the radiation would zap the germs off the food before the dupes could get it in their mouth: but how it actually seems to work is that if the food is not germy by the time the duplicant finishes eating it, they get no food poisoning exposure

That`s an interesting mechanic. IMO it`s kinda ok for it to be that way as long as the radiation exposure is comparable to the effect of food poisoning exposure. It`s all about balance. I think the low radiation sources shouldn`t be as effective at clearing germs but an amount that can give minor rad sickness over a cycle should clear most germs in that time.