Lots of good posts in this thread. I'm afraid when I "read between the lines" of such issues, what I am left with is an institutional and incestuous relationship between the US Food & Drug Administration, and its proverbial "revolving door" of corporate bean-counter$.
One group focusing primarily on the appearance of consumer health and safety, with the other focusing on how to appear to comply in the most minimal fashion in the production of their food product$.
How do people become like this, I sometimes wonder.....caring more about the bottom line than anything else?