So, is it just me, or has anyone else considered outfitting their mobile base with an additional array of 60L tanks for handling bulk quantities of cooking oil, vinegar, and or booze? Pros? Cons?
For that matter, what are you generally dining upon during your apocalypse? Fine french foods - or just any NPC’s with a French name?
I just try to always eat the perishables first. But it’s kinda hard because it’s not always easy to know what you can use them as ingredients in, and “You know lots of things you could make with this” isn’t very helpful so you end up just eating old carrots to get rid of them.
I once devoured the remains my heroic friend left me after fending off a mob of advanced zed.
His name was Urist and I was playing an elfin cannibal.
DF reference 
*Cuisine
Crafting window
activate search, then type
c:carrot
That’ll list all the recipes that use carrot as an ingredient (component). Do it while near your book collection. Sure, that search function isn’t perfect but it helps a lot.
Personally, over time I got stuck with certain recipes, and stopped bothering myself with trying to optimize the ingredient use to perfection.
The only imaginable downside of filling a 60L tank with some exotic liquid is that if you have to see a lot of effort to produce it, then you’ll risk losing it all if something happens to the tank. Of course I’m not saying that a 60L tank full of beer would be a bad idea, oh no. Quite the contrary - it is necessary.
If you go heavy with mutagens, you could fill a few tanks with like ammonia, bleach or mutagen. Or salt water.
Currently the universal tanks serve no huge purpose, but they might in the future. And it was a sensible solution to having specific tanks for each liquid.