Bava Metzia 87 - Workers Eat While Harvesting

Abraham asked for the people to exhibit signs of aging, and “Now Abraham was old, well on in years…” Jakov asked for feebleness to precede death, and “…he said to Joseph, ‘Behold! – your father is ill'…”

Workers may eat from the employer’s food while harvesting it. They may also snack on it while further working on it, until the time the work process is complete and the tithing obligation starts. This is a Torah decree, and it applies only to something that grows from the ground.
A worker hired to weed out a field of onions can’t eat them, as well as one hired to repack fig cakes that split apart.