The USDA will now allow chickens slaughtered in the U.S. to be processed in China, but no labeling will be required to identify those chicken products that they ship back to the U.S. Some believe this in reaction to China agreeing to take USA Beef after they stopped due to mad cow disease. The concern is that the Chinese do not use the same standards that are required by the FDA in America. Other concerns are that chicken by nature can be dangerous. It carries bacteria which can make you very sick that is why right there on the package there are plenty of warning labels about that. Another concern is that if food that comes to schools did not come from the USDA, and, if China ever did start processing U.S. chicken, there would be the possibility that private vendors could sell it to schools. This could possibly put our children at risk. In November of 2013 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service declared that China’s poultry-slaughter system is not equivalent and so poultry slaughtered in China is not allowed to be imported to the United States. China has yet to certify plants to process chicken for export and give a list of them to USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). The country hasn’t signified that they intend to do this, and U.S. companies have not expressed the desire to have China process their poultry. “Food & Water Watch, a consumer-advocacy group, earlier this year listed five questionable food imports from China: tilapia, cod, apple juice, processed mushrooms and garlic. Tilapia and cod are raised in fish ponds and dosed with antibiotics and growth hormones. Imported Chinese apple juice reportedly contains three times the federal limit for arsenic in water. U.S. inspectors have also found tainted mushrooms and garlic.”[1] “Food-safety horror stories abound in China. More than 50,000 children were sickened and four died in 2008 after consuming baby formula tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical. Hong Kong authorities also discovered eggs contaminated with melamine. USDA officials halted imports of Chinese shrimp, eel, catfish and carp in 2007 due to high levels of illegal antibiotics and chemicals. Three years later, officials seized thousands of pounds of Chinese honey after finding illegal antibiotics. And this year, more than 500 dogs and a handful of cats died after eating jerky treats made of chicken, according to an investigation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”[2] The good news is that there is not expected to be a lot of processed Chicken entering the US markets but the concern for parents will be food safety and the lack of labels to let you know where the chicken may be coming from.