LOAD DATA INFILE and binary log

When a file is loaded into mysql server through LOAD DATA INFILE statement multiple events are logged into the binary log as create and exec (or) create , append … and exec , would like to know what is the file size threshold which triggers append events and is it configurable ( version 5.1.x and above ) ?

In production I have observed append events of block length up to 8 MB but local simulation produces ( same my.cnf ) around 16KB of block length , I am trying to figure out the safe value for max_allowed_packet in the master so that replication does not fail because of larger block lengths in the binary log and also why for the same my.cnf , table and file data different block length events are produced .

Please help .