Yeah food spoilage would be super annoying.

I think the refining process should definitely bring the weight down for ingots and possibly increase ingot stack size. This would bring another depth to the risk reward for collecting metals. Do you smelt onsite to bring more back to base and then risk losing some on the trip back or do you just bring ore home and don't waste time smelting onsite just in case theres some loss on the trip back.

I also think a reduction in ingot amounts needed for recipes would help.