Heya,
The mouth wasn't changed. Items were just tweaked to make most big items reduced in size by 10% and have a variable size between +/- 10% * a public growth multiplier.
As for the going from left to right, I can't find any instances where the moment that one food pipe closes the other opens as well. There's always enough of a pause to stay in the middle. I cannot point out predominant strategies to players as that would most likely take the fun out of discovering those strategies. If I was to tackle this issue I'd have to sadly change too much from the games fundamental code.
However, the banana is a really fair point that I can do something about. They're supposed to be some of the most difficult to eat, but I might have made them a little too hard.
Thank you so much for the feedback, I'll try my best to see what I can incorporate! :)