I have no options on the durned thing besides tinkering and upgrading, and they don't use it passively either. What is the use of this thing?
You have to make a meal and store it on the food replicator. Depending on its quality you will get 10 or 20 charges i believe. Then you just select the food replicator and replicate a meal. Your best off to do it on group meals you'll never need to cook again.