"The standard does not appear necessary to ensure that the product meets consumer expectations, and the F.D.A. has tentatively concluded that it is no longer necessary to promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers and may limit flexibility for innovation."

Announced the FDA, quoted in "F.D.A. Wants to Stop Regulating French Dressing/The federal agency said it was seeking to revoke its definition for the carrot-colored dressing, effectively erasing a government-required list of ingredients at the request of an industry group" (NYT). 

Marion Nestle — "a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University" — called bullshit on the FDA : "They want to do it because they want less fat than what’s in the standard of identity, and they want to put more junk in it. And their argument is everybody knows what these things are, and everybody knows what they’re buying." 

Whatever. It's not as if the FDA ever protected us from the deception that is labeling this stuff "French."

The dressing was originally a simple vinaigrette made of oil and vinegar, but it gradually became the gooey, sweet, tomato-inflected dressing we recognize today, [said Paul Freedman, a professor of history at Yale, and the author of “American Cuisine: And How It Got This Way"]. Unlike the French, who tend to relegate sugar to dessert, the dressing reflects Americans’ love of all things sugary, from honey mustard to bacon slathered in maple syrup, he said.