I dunno. The US Government thinking about what we eat has been around since at least iodized salt, probably earlier. There's a famous 1800s court case about whe

I dunno. The US Government thinking about what we eat has been around since at least iodized salt, probably earlier. There's a famous 1800s court case about whether or not Tomatoes are fruits or Vegetables. The bulk of these regulations came after Sinclair's "The Jungle", pointing out all of the problems at food processing plants (albeit in fictional form, but there was truth in fiction) -------- Whether or not the US Government "should" care is kind of a settled case for over a century in my eyes. Now that being said, "processed food" is such an incredibly vague category filled with obvious snake-oil salesmen and fake news that I loathe to give any of that much of my attention. But the government thinking about what foods are safe (or not) to eat? That's literally their job and has been for a long, long time. ------- Now we can talk about where the regulations have failed, such as the Peking Duck exemption. (Peking Duck is delicious, and clearly safe. But by 1970s law / understanding of regulations, it was quite illegal). And its important to remember these cases and that regulation is far from perfect. But the overall concept of caring about what foods are safe and not safe is the point of FDA, USDA, and a whole slew of other agencies.