I think food items may be dangerous and giving them away may still make you liable unless laws were specifically written to protect donations.
Although there is some nuance here, the bakery throwing away the doughnuts and cinnamon scrolls at the end of the day is not the same risk factor as the supermarket throwing away chicken past its "used by" date.

I see absolutely no reason why legislation couldnt be crafted to:

1. Allow donations of food items without liability if sickness occours due to the age of the food.
2. Allow companies to write off donations as stock loss (or whatever) so they can claim cost of the food (aquisition costs, not advertised sale price) as a tax deduction, which would incentivise donations as a win for both the donor and recipient.

For non-perishables (clothes, toys, appliances, etc) then just #2 applies.