Might be just my opinion on this but think this needs some work. I only have 270 villagers, absolute tonnes of food production from every building type except farm. Lots of coopers, preserve buildings. My storages have barrels and yet, food wastage is consistently 1 or 2 behind production. So if I produce 3 months of food, I get 2 months spoilage. Same at the other end, 9 months of food but 7 months spoilage. Villagers then get unhappy with food levels, then leave taking food I apparently don’t have. Just think the spoilage in general is an issue? or is it just me?
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Not just you. To me, however, the spoilage is related to what I see as the fundamental problem of food and other supplies and the luxuries, too – distribution. The distribution system is flawed right now, and needed resources and products are not getting where they need to go.
Wheat doesn’t get to the granaries next to my barns.
Too much of the food and soap and luxuries and other needs don’t get to the markets. They just sit in the warehouses, the warehouses become full – and stuff spoils.
My foundries aren’t getting the iron I have in quantity in my warehouses.
My clay isn’t getting to my pottery and brickmakers.
Fish is not getting to my smokehouses and thence to my markets.
And on, and on. Distribution is not balanced, so that the resources and products do not get to where they’re needed when they’re needed. Wagons should be used for all of it, not just for pickup from mines. Wagons should pick up from fishing shacks, hunter lodges, and forager shacks. Wagons should deliver from warehouses to markets.
Distribution is the fundamental flaw.
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It also depends upon the types of food you have and where food is stored: unsmoked meat & fish goes off pretty rapidly, especially when not stored in root cellars (preferably upgraded with barrels).
As of 0.7.6 the grocers still don’t work efficiently at delivering from their markets, which can compound the issue (0.8.0 sees a great improvement to their functioning making markets with food not such a bad thing any more).
Without farms you’ll also possibly be missing certain food types, depending upon what you are buying from traders and foraging. Cereals being the obvious one that springs to mind. Variety of food as well as pure lack of it contributes to villagers’ happiness.
But food spoils… especially without icehouses and salting (the latter of which I’d quite like to see… coupled with salt mines of course).
Current 0.8.0.3p has an issue with certain villagers leaving that should get resolved in the next update. I’ve had my food levels to 0/0 and didn’t lose villagers as a result. While your villagers are taking food, they’re leaving because of a bug in their housing assignment.
Food spoilage is usually caused by producing the wrong types of food, storing it improperly, or producing too much food for your villagers to eat.
Without knowing exactly which food is spoiling it would be difficult for us to suggest fixes.
Yeah I know, I lacked the specifics looking at it properly, was kinda producing every food item except milk/cheese but!!.. the last patch, Has tweaked some things. I had no leavers first year since patch and food was consistent, 7 months and now only 3 months lost so never dropped to like 1/2 months food reserves after the spoilage hit. Will keep eyes on. Thanks for what ever tweaks were made 
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Not sure if the latest patch addressed this, but I always wondered why the spoilage didn’t seem to go down after barrels and preserving. I had one settlement with over 80% barrels in all storage buildings and the spoilage still looked the same ratio I had before barrels and preserves.
If you are making 1000 food a year, and your pops only need 800, then you’ll end up with 200 spoiling each year no matter how well you preserve it.
I also experience considerable food wastage. From reading other posts I understand the Market malfunctions in 0.7.6 and indications this problem has been addressed in 0.8.0. (or not fully as per other posts). I have tried to improve the situation by trying to always group Hunter/Forager and if area permits Fisher in close proximity together with a Smoke Hut and Root Cellar. I also place Granary next to Farms and a Smoke Hut and Root Cellar next to Barns but makes little or no difference. I believe some of the wastage occurs due to the long wait for transportation to correct storage. Perhaps this could be improve by having food more quickly collected by lighter carriers drawn by horses thus leaving heavier goods to the lumbering Oxen/
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On the contrary, I don’t think spoilage occurs at all in some of these production buildings (for the smoker in particular, I just discovered one that still has 18 fish in it, but I decommissioned both fishing huts over 20 game years ago).
Additionally, the spoilage indicator on your food supply tells you how much will spoil in the next year. In my mind, if you have less than 12 months of food, the amount that will expire in a year is somewhat irrelevant as it’s almost certain to be consumed before then.
Actual spoilage is reported by the storage building w a red notification icon that looks the same as the "animals are your crops* notice. To the OP, do you see that a lot too? If not, the game is most likely just telling you the portion of your yearly produced food that has a shelf life under a year.
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