I think the sad truth of it is that it's not about public stupidity, its about public malice and greed.

It's the same reason that everyone has to label their products with WARNING: THIS WILL BE HOT AFTER YOU HEAT IT. Remember that huge wave of lawsuits a while back where most every company was getting sued because the morons claimed "they didn't know this would happen"? Yeah, they knew it would happen, they just needed to come up with some bullshit legal grounds to sue.

Cover your ass from all angles, even the incredibly stupid ones.

I’d like to clarify a bit:

There is an FDA law prohibiting non-edible items in food, so the ban was more out of fear that kids would choke on it.

Granted, it doesn’t made the ban any less stupid, but knowing this should at least end the “our country’s kids must be smarter” circlejerk.