Phony Potatoes

After church we went the grocery store, and I looked at the back of a package of mashed potatoes (the ones you add water to) I counted around 25 ingredients in this package, many of which I had to look up:

• Mono and diglycerides  - emulsifiers that may contain trans fats which the FDA has said don't have to be reported
• Artificial colors - a quick google search reveals all kinds of health issues as a result of ingesting them
• Artificial flavor - One article said that there are over 3,000 different artificial flavorings. So you can't even know exactly what ingredients are in this.

Some of the rest of those chemicals have gotten the Generally Recognized AS Safe (GRAS) distinction from the FDA. How did we get to the point where it's ok to put all these chemicals into foods?