FDA Warns Public to Avoid Potentially Radioactive Frozen Shrimp from Walmart

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning to the public to avoid Walmart’s Great Value-branded frozen shrimp due to the possibility of it being radioactive.

In an alert on Tuesday, the FDA explained that “certain raw frozen shrimp products” that were processed by PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati — an Indonesian company also known as BMS Foods, and sold in Walmart stores in several states, may possibly be contaminated with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope.

Great Value-branded frozen shrimp, which were reported to have been affected, contained the lot codes 8005540-1, 8005538-1, and 8005539-1 with a best by date of 3/15/2027.

The FDA added that while “no product that has test positive or alerted for Cesium-137” has entered the United States commerce, the FDA had “determined that product” from the company was in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act “in that it appears to have been prepared, packaged, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with Cs-137”:

At this time, no product that has tested positive or alerted for Cesium-137 (Cs-137) has entered the U.S. commerce. FDA is working with distributors and retailers that received product from PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati after the date of first detection of Cs-1137 by Customs & Border Protection (CBP), but from shipments that did not alert for Cs-137, to recommend that firms conduct a recall. In conjunction with other information, FDA determined that product from PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati violates the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act in that it appears to have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with Cs-137 and may pose a safety concern.

The FDA continued to explain that it had “added PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati to a new import alert for chemical contamination to stop products from this firm” from entering into the country until the company “resolved the conditions that gave rise to the appearance of the violation.”

The FDA’s alert continued to explain that while the “level of Cs-137” that had been detected had been around “68 Bq/kg, which is below FDA’s Derived Intervention Level for Cs-137 of 1200 Bq/kg,” avoiding products like the one the FDA tested that may contain “similar levels of Cs-137” is a precaution “to reduce exposure to low-level radiation”:

FDA detected Cs-137 in a single shipment of imported frozen shrimp from PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati that did not enter U.S. commerce. The level of Cs-137 detected in the detained shipment was approximately 68 Bq/kg, which is below FDA’s Derived Intervention Level for Cs-137 of 1200 Bq/kg. At this level, the product would not pose an acute hazard to consumers. Avoiding products like the shipment FDA tested with similar levels of Cs-137 is a measure intended to reduce exposure to low-level radiation that could have health impacts with continued exposure over a long period of time.

Cesium is described as being a “soft, flexible, silvery-white metal that becomes liquid near room temperature,” with the “most common radioactive form of cesium” being Cs-137, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website on Cesium-137.

“External exposure to large amounts of Cs-137 can cause burns, acute radiation sickness and even death,” the EPA’s website says. “Exposure to such a large amount could come from the mishandling of a strong industrial source of Cs-137, a nuclear detonation or a major nuclear accident.”