I fail to see how I will be able to eat as much as I do now in the mess, for the same price, under PAYD. The reason we are so well catered for (banter about burning the water aside) is that all living in pers pay food charges, whether they eat in the mess or not. The ration assassins are allocated a portion of that money to feed everyone for a day (I think about 40p a head). They know that they will only have to cater for a certain percentage of those people as many choose not to eat in the mess - ie, although they are allocated x amount of person, they can take a calculated risk and spend y amount, with the risk of running out if everyone decides to eat on that particular day.
Very true - also the standard of catering at some Messes (a certain headquarters unit springs to mind) at weekends was (in my experience) frankly insulting. The contract caterers peruse the warning-out book for the weekend in the full knowledge that food charges are still being paid (as a weekend is not in excess of 3 days stand-down) and put on the bare minimum for the few sad persons (normally of lowly rank) with no home to go to. Slap on pie, chips and beans and pocket the difference.
PAYD as a concept is absolutely fine, but you can be sure that the contractors will screw over their uniformed "customers" in every way possible.
Perhaps an issue for a Federation....