Having worked in my teens as a grocery stock boy and at a number of pizza restaurants in my small town can confirm that the amount of perfectly edible food that both those entities throw away is a shame. We used to keep pizzas off the buffet for our homeless street kids and runaways in the coolers and leave them at the end of the night in trash bags wrapped up separate by the back door. At the grocery the stock boys routinely took steaks that were pulled to be thrown away and kept them in the back cooler till we got off work and went home to major grill night. Tuesday’s was markoff day we all made sure we were scheduled for that evenings stock run. Nothing wrong with reducing waste especially if you are just going to trash perfectly edible food anyways.
Businesses destroy such food when they can, because they can be sued if “freegans” get sick or even just distribute it. This is the price you pay for a sue-happy culture.