Meal Lice

Meal Lice is a basic edible crop that can be harvested from farmed plants and eaten directly, or processed into better-storing foods. It is one of the earliest and simplest food sources in the game, but it is not especially efficient to cook into Liceloaf: the recipe gives fewer added calories and worse quality than using the same amount of water on other staple crops. For that reason, Meal Lice is usually best used raw or turned into Pickled Meal instead.

Meal Lice can be cooked in a Microbe Musher to make Liceloaf, or in an Electric Grill to make Pickled Meal.

• Liceloaf: 1,200 kcal of Meal Lice plus 50 kg Water becomes 1,700 kcal of food with 0 quality and a shelf life of 4 cycles.
• Pickled Meal: 1,800 kcal of Meal Lice becomes 1,800 kcal of food with -1 quality and a shelf life of 32 cycles.
• Feeding Meal Lice to Dreckos increases the chance of getting a Glossy Drecko egg.
• Because Liceloaf offers poor value compared with other cooked foods, Meal Lice is commonly reserved for emergency meals, direct consumption, or Drecko ranching rather than routine cooking.