[2020] Not a great fan so far

As a survival game, food and water are supposed to be two of your biggest struggles at the start. As you progress, you get a handle on those needs and pivot to other needs, like dealing with increasingly dangerous zombies.

Now, the way the devs have implemented the progression on loot may be considered unorthodox. As you level up, you will eventually start finding better loot, which would include better food. This system is in progress and is slated to see further refinement, such as harder biomes and/or points of interest having better loot, all the time.

For now, I’d advise you to keep looting places that logically should have food in the hopes that you have better luck, and supplementing that with hunting, buying food from traders & vending machines, opening up more cooking recipes, and eventually farming your own food.