I gave them some candies with no container and a hamburger in a wrapper, so they should have saw at least the candy as food.
That’s possible the cause, but as I’ve said, it also might be that they see that eating something would cause them to go from “hungry” to “engorged” and don’t eat the food therefore.
I’ll test a version after the inventory change but before the changes to the food system if I get the time - maybe tomorrow, unless it’s fixed until then or someone else does that test.
Edit:
Some more test later…:
NPCs will not consume food and drinks from their inventory in Build 10678, which, as far as I know, is before any changes on the food system happened.
Therefore it’s very likely that the Container changes also broke NPC behavior.
I gave one some clean water in a plastic bottle, aside from some honey combs and hardtack with no container around them, and she still complains about hunger and thirst…
Second edit: She will not even consume stuff if I take everything from her and force her to hold food/drinks in her hand. But that’s quite possible just the NPC code not checking the wielded stuff for edibles.