2.31 Food Service Technology
Describes Voyager's food replicators, their power-limited use, supplementation by Kes and Neelix, how they are used, and their molecular-resolution limitation.
In brief: Most food service aboard Voyager was to be provided by handy transporter terminals, usually called FOOD REPLICATORS, which can instantly materialize virtually any dish in the computer’s memory at a moment’s notice. Power limitations make replicator usage much more limited than on the Enterprise. Kes will set up a hydroponic garden, and Neelix a kitchen, to augment the ship’s foodstuffs.
How to use it: One can simply press a button on the replicator control panel to indicate your choice (the panel is presumably capable of displaying a menu), or one can verbally indicate what you want, as in Picard’s famous “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”
More: As with all transporter-based replication technology, food service transporter terminals recreate matter at the “molecular resolution level”, which means it is sufficient to duplicate nutritional properties and taste, but is inadequate to recreate a living being.