Radioactive shrimp may have been sold at Walmart stores across 13 US states.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today that the seafood contains a substance known as Cesium-137.
Customs found traces of the substance in Great Value brand shrimp delivered to ports in Savannah, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles.
Testing on the breaded shrimp from Walmart’s distributor, Indonesia’s BMS Foods, came back positive, the FDA said.
Food safety officials stressed that no contaminated shrimp has entered the food supply.
People have been warned not to eat, sell or serve certain Great Value raw frozen shrimp.
The products include the following product names, lot codes, and best by dates:
- Great Value brand Frozen Raw Ez Peel Tail-On Farm-Raised White Vannamei Shrimp, 2lb bag, lot code: 8005540-1, Best by Date: 3/15/2027
- Great Value brand Frozen Raw Ez Peel Tail-On Farm-Raised White Vannamei Shrimp, 2lb bag, lot code: 8005538-1, Best by Date: 3/15/2027
- Great Value brand Frozen Raw Ez Peel Tail-On Farm-Raised White Vannamei Shrimp, 2lb bag, lot code: 8005539-1, Best by Date: 3/15/2027
Full list of where the recalled shrimp were sold
According to Walmart, they were sold in the following states:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Missouri
- Mississippi
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- West Virginia.
‘If you have recently purchased raw frozen shrimp from Walmart that matches this description, throw it away,’ the FDA warning says.
Exposure to Cesium-137, also called Cs-137, can cause burns, acute radiation sickness and even death’, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fact sheet.
The human-made substance, created in nuclear reactors, spreads easily through the air, water and soil.
‘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,’ the EPA adds.
Even a low dose of the isotope, whether ingested or inhaled, can erode body tissue and cause an elevated risk of cancer.
The substance is used in some medical treatments, such as for cervical cancer, as well as for devices that detect how thick a material is.
Officials found the shipments contained 68Bq/kg – becquerel is a unit of measurement for radioactivity – which is well below the 1200Bq/kg safety limit that would prompt the FDA to intervene.
Officials have not said how the frozen shrimp became tainted by the radioactive substance. An investigation is ongoing.
The FDA added: ‘Any unexpected finding of Cs-137 in a food product is evaluated to determine if follow-up action is warranted on a case-by-case basis.’
This isn’t the first time traces of Cesium-137 have been found in food – researchers detected the substance in honey produced along the east coast in 2020.
The contaminant can often be found in food sources as a result of Cold War nuclear testing.
Jim Kaste, an environmental geochemist at the College of William & Mary, said: ‘There was a period in which we tested hundreds of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
‘What that did was put a blanket of these isotopes into the environment during a very narrow time window.’
Walmart has been approached for comment.
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