WASHINGTON — Despite China’s disgusting food-safety record, the feds for the first time are allowing American chickens to be sent to China for processing — and then imported back to the United States.

The prospect of US grocery stores selling Chinese chicken nuggets laced with insecticide or substituted with rat meat prompted Sen. Chuck Schumer yesterday to demand aggressive action by US Department of Agriculture food inspectors.

“Given Chinese processors’ poor track record with regard to food-safety standards, the USDA should be taking every possible step to ensure that the chicken that ends up on our plates and in our McNuggets is safe,” Schumer (D-NY) said at a press conference.

He rattled off a nauseating list of Chinese food scandals, including arsenic found in calamari and rice, pasta infested with maggots, pumpkin seeds mixed with glass chips and rat meat sold as lamb.

“And to top it off, on-site US inspectors will not be required at these sites so there is simply no guarantee that food safety laws are up to United States standards,” Schumer said.

The chicken also won’t have to be labeled as coming from China.

“Consumers won’t even know whether or not the chicken they are eating has been processed in China,” Schumer said.