The rations/consumables system is a bit odd, its completely optional and it has a slight benefit when used alongside resting, but that is arguably made redundant due to the ease in which healing potions are brewed, the large number in which potions can be stacked, healing kits being cheap and readily available to purchase, and of course the Cleric/Druid class. It's also very clear that the ration system is very old in its implementation, and there is the curious situation in that cooking meat on a campfire creates manufactured canned goods.
So its slightly jarring in character for me personally who likes to use the hunger system, to cook deer meat and get canned goods, Ive noticed in a store, I think it was in the Village of Barovia, there is an item called Food Supplies, it has an on use function, I tried to use it on myself, nothing, I tried to use it on the group, nothing, I used it on a campfire, nothing. It sells for 0 gold, and it has a generic description, so I honestly cannot figure out what to do with it, but I was looking at it the other week pondering what I should do with it, and I thought this would make more sense if this was what you got after you prepared meat on a campfire. It struck me in that cloth wrapping there might be some cooked meat, a wedge of cheese, some apples or vegetables, it could be prepared in the wild, and eaten a few hours later after a tiring journey or hellish dungeon run by a single person or a group.
It would make more sense if preparing food resulted in this in your inventory, it has 5 uses, and each use satisfies your hunger.
So would we miss the canned food? I don't think people would, you can make a few gold out of selling canned food to Petre, but if you added a few gold onto the value of the food supplies, then you would more than make up for the loss of the canned food, canned food is smaller it takes the least inventory space, but its heavier, the food supplies wouldn't need to weigh anymore than it's current value, because the increase in inventory space balances out its lower weight.
So how complex should it be to make this food supplies? That can vary, you could take a cooking pot, or campfire, give it an inventory, and add one bolt of cloth, a piece of uncooked meat, one or more vegetables, or pieces if fruit, a wedge of cheese (optional?) and a new item lets say a "carving knife", or a "cooking knife", use it on the campfire, a small animation of you poking the campfire/cooking pot, opening door handle, (sitting down?) and voila, a prepared food supplies, ready to be sold to Petre, or saved for when you character or party is hungry.