You can also put a stack of the food on your cursor, and it'll eat them one or two at a time. Might help if having trouble keeping up. Also, when I did it, it didn't show the stack going down, initially, but when put the stack in bag, the reduced number was in the bag.
Average hit on my 92 tank merc was 7.7k. Easily healed by a 95 tank merc with some shaman spot healing. I'm not sure if the shaman was even necessary except for slows.
This mob emotes "Husk of Starvation grows angrier as it's consumed with hunger." and seems to hit extremely hard/fast after that, unless the player it is attacking has a food item on the cursor, in which case it emotes "Husk of Starvation grows calmer as it eats the food from your hand." and hits normally.
Also drops on my kill were: Rustic Armwraps of Argath, Jagged Bone of the Husk, Minor Alaran Cantrip