The idea
Allow people and businesses to use their senses including common sense to decide whether food items are fit for consumption. 'Use by' dates on such as honey, found palatable after 5000 years in a Pharoah's tomb and bottled water advertised as 'filtered through rocks for a thousand years' are just ludicrous. Or at the very least limit the rigidity of 'use by' dates to items where unfitness for comsumption can be truly dangerous to health and/or can be concealed by the unscrupulous. For example allow retailers deeply to discount or give away fresh food that is past its best but perefectly palatable.
Why is it important?
To minimise the current huge waste of consumable produce, and in the case of my example aid both the diet and finances of the poorest in society.