I made a similar comment about this on reddit the other day. I agree that giving food a variety of additive attributes and buff would give players a means of creating dynamic food builds that match they way they are playing at the moment. The key is that the developers need to actually sit down and look at the common things players do when playing and build foods around supporting and improving those. Chopping down a lot of trees, eat these foods. Going to wield a hammer in combat, eat this combo. This would certainly be a better approach. In the end your making food combos temporary builds for players to use as they progress and play.

This by no means an easy thing to do but if done well could elevate the game play possibilities quite a bit. Maybe a modder will come along and try something like this if the devs don't.