The report, entitled the "Food Safety System Governing the Production of Slaughtered Poultry Intended for Export to the United States of America," describes the outcome of an on-site initial equivalence audit conducted by FSIS on 4-19 March 2013.

The objectives of the audit were to determine the performance of China’s food safety system in regards to each of the six equivalence components, including government oversight; statutory authority and food safety regulations; sanitation; hazard analysis and critical control point systems; chemical residue programs; and microbiological testing programs.

FSIS determined that the Chinese slaughter inspection system is not comparable to the US system and therefore that poultry slaughtered in the People’s Republic of China are not eligible to be imported to the United States. Specifically, the report indicates that China’s inspection system lacks a standardized method to assign inspection personnel to slaughter facilities and that, by splitting inspection of the viscera, body surface, and body cavity of birds among three different inspectors, the system is not consistent with the US requirements. China has indicated it intends to make the necessary changes, at which point FSIS may re-audit the system for equivalency.

The FSIS audit report is available here. This determination does not affect the FSIS decision from earlier this summer that chicken processed in China (but slaughtered in the United States or Canada) has received inspection equivalent to US inspection.