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I'll recommend using a transport pod to do the trading

Yeah, I guess rushing escape pods is a very good tactic now.

Indeed, mid-to-late game that [escape pods] would be preferred, but early-to-mid game, this does seem like it could be an issue.
(Mind you, I haven't played enough to encounter these requests myself yet, so I am unsure as to when exactly these requests start being pertinent.)

These missions started early-game way before I had access to escape pods.

That definitely seems like a problem.
Perhaps the ability to mark certain inventory items (food) as "trade goods" (and therefore inedible by the caravan pawns) would be a pertinent addition?

That's a great idea!

I don't have access to my log file at the moment, but I will post it here later.
I can, however, confirm that this happened to me on my first A17 game.

Some of the new caravan missions are almost impossible.

In some missions, a friendly settlement requests a couple of thousand units of some food. Since we cannot restrict what foods our settlers can and cannot eat, they will also eat the food that they are trying to deliver. This effect becomes significant for long trips, making these missions a lot harder than they should be (or in some cases almost impossible).

Of course, maybe this wouldn't be an issue for very advanced colonies, but my point still stands. We either need a way of managing what foods the caravan will consume or a change to the missions.

All in all, I must say that I really enjoy the new update! Keep up the good work!