It seems that, similar to golden apples and the like, you can consume any food that has been placed down on a surface regardless of the players current hunger level (most notably when you are full). In this case, some foods apply their saturation more than once (I think bread, for example, applies its 6 or so saturation multiple times, giving a player with a maxed hunger value a maxed saturation value).

I also vaguely remember that cooked pork and carrots gave a rather ridiculous saturation level upon consumption. I'm no developer, but I'd probably check the implementation for all the foods and their specific values just to be sure, and don't forget that, regardless of that, you can still eat beyond maximum hunger values.

If I'm correct, this could be replicated on the most recent version, which is 3.3 . If it can't, I can share the other mods I am using and we could narrow down the compatibility issue. I'll tell you right now, I am running AttributeFix, which very well might have something to do with it.

Thank you for your consideration and your great work on this project.

Oh, you also had a post open about AppleCore, which I have installed as well. Worth mentioning, I think.