August 20, 2025
2 min read
Key takeaways:
- The FDA recommended Walmart recall frozen shrimp imported from an Indonesian company.
- The alert was issued over possible radioactive contamination with Cesium-137.
The FDA warned consumers in the United States that a brand of frozen raw shrimp exported from Indonesia and sold at Walmart may be contaminated with radiation.
Walmart has recalled several lots of Great Value brand frozen raw white shrimp sold in two-pound bags with best-by dates of March 15, 2027, over concerns that the product might be contaminated with Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope.
Frozen raw shrimp from an Indonesian supplier may be contaminated with a radioactive isotope, the FDA warned. Image: Adobe Stock
Long-term, low-level exposure to Cesium-137, including through ingestion, can increase a person’s risk for cancer, the FDA noted. The isotope is a product of man-made nuclear reactions and can be distributed in nuclear reactor accidents like Chernobyl, according to the CDC.
In an alert issued Tuesday, the FDA said that it has not detected Cesium-137 “above the current derived intervention levels” — a term used by scientists to describe when protective measures should be considered — but the levels detected “could represent a potential health concern for those exposed to this level of [Cesium-137] from consumption of the shrimp over an extended period of time combined with radiation that exists in the environment and from other sources such as medical procedures.”
No products that “entered the U.S. commerce” have tested positive for radioactive contamination, the agency said.
The FDA warning came after U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) detected Cesium-137 in shipping containers at ports in Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and Savannah, Georgia. Testing confirmed the presence of the isotope in one sample of breaded shrimp.
“The agency continues to coordinate with CBP to prevent any contaminated products from reaching consumers and is working with Indonesian seafood regulatory authorities to investigate the root cause of the contamination,” the FDA said.
It did not explicitly say how the shrimp may have been contaminated but noted that Cesium-137 is “widespread worldwide” and that trace amounts of it “can be found in the environment, including soil, food, and air.”
“Although testing to date has not confirmed the presence of contamination in any product in commerce,” the FDA said, “the product appears to have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with [Cesium-137] and may pose a safety concern.”
According to the FDA, Walmart “received implicated raw frozen shrimp, imported after the date of first detection of [Cesium-137] but from shipments that did not alert for” the isotope. The agency recommended that Walmart recall those shrimp, which it has.
Frozen raw shrimp products processed by the Indonesian company at the center of the recall — PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, also known as BMS Foods — are sold at Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia, according to the FDA.
The FDA said anyone who suspects they have been exposed to elevated levels of cesium should talk to their health care provider.
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