You can recall knowledge about poisons with medicine or any applicable lore.
The DC is dependant in the level of the poison.
Now I don't know about doing it passively, maybe a secret recall knowledge check?
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There is the Supertaster general feat in the APG, which implies you can't typically detect poisoned food/drink without it: General
Prerequisites master in Perception
You have refined your palate and have a discerning sense of taste that can detect abnormalities in the flavor and texture of food and beverages. When eating food or drinking a beverage, you automatically attempt to identify the ingredients, which might alert you to the presence of alterations or additives, such as poisons. The GM rolls a secret Perception check using the poison's level to determine the DC; on a success, you learn that the food or drink was poisoned, but not the specific poison used.
If you lick or taste something while Investigating or attempting to Recall Knowledge to identify something, if the taste would provide relevant additional information (at the GM's discretion), you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your check.
There is the Supertaster general feat in the APG, which implies you can't typically detect poisoned food/drink without it:Source Advanced Player's Guide pg. 209General
Prerequisites master in Perception
You have refined your palate and have a discerning sense of taste that can detect abnormalities in the flavor and texture of food and beverages. When eating food or drinking a beverage, you automatically attempt to identify the ingredients, which might alert you to the presence of alterations or additives, such as poisons. The GM rolls a secret Perception check using the poison's level to determine the DC; on a success, you learn that the food or drink was poisoned, but not the specific poison used.If you lick or taste something while Investigating or attempting to Recall Knowledge to identify something, if the taste would provide relevant additional information (at the GM's discretion), you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to your check.
It just means you have to TRY to make the check normally while the feat allows an AUTOMATIC one. So if someone thinks there might be poison, I'd do it like the feat: Roll perception vs the poison DC.
Except some poisons really are tasteless (and would require SUPERTASTING! to detect).
While others could easily be masked, like cyanide in an almond dessert.
"You taste almonds."
"Oh, NO! Wait, what am I eating again?"
"Almond pie."
Or how about really powerful foods with garlic or hot peppers.
And the poison descriptions, much less the mechanics, don't really cover any of this. So I'd say go with whatever route best suits the sub-genre and narrative you're working with. An espionage game would likely need a subsystem while a one-shot might only need you to wing it depending on the PCs' actions. I'd lean toward a Perception check w/ a Medicine (or similar) check to taste then identify, at least for generic poisons, maybe only a "tastes funny" for situations where it doesn't matter much if the PCs detect it and "supertasters only" for the plot-pivotal poisons.
Except some poisons really are tasteless (and would require SUPERTASTING! to detect).
While others could easily be masked, like cyanide in an almond dessert.
"You taste almonds."
"Oh, NO! Wait, what am I eating again?"
"Almond pie."
Or how about really powerful foods with garlic or hot peppers.And the poison descriptions, much less the mechanics, don't really cover any of this. So I'd say go with whatever route best suits the sub-genre and narrative you're working with. An espionage game would likely need a subsystem while a one-shot might only need you to wing it depending on the PCs' actions. I'd lean toward a Perception check w/ a Medicine (or similar) check to taste then identify, at least for generic poisons, maybe only a "tastes funny" for situations where it doesn't matter much if the PCs detect it and "supertasters only" for the plot-pivotal poisons.
I'd say the the mechanics cover it very well in the DC of the poison: a high level poison is going to be easier to miss, while attempts to mask it work like any other modifier: using the Adjusting Difficulty chart on the base DC.