Frozen shrimp that may be radioactive made their way to Walmart shelves, the Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday.
The FDA identified three lots of Great Value branded frozen shrimp that might have been contaminated with cesium-137, a relatively common nuclear isotope.
“If you recently purchased one of the impacted lots of Great Value raw frozen shrimp from Walmart, throw it away. Do not eat or serve this product,” the FDA warned. “Distributors and retailers should dispose of this product and should not sell or serve this product.”
Border Patrol officials detected cesium-137 in containers at ports in Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Savannah, according to the FDA. The containers were used by an Indonesian company, BMS Foods.
Federal authorities have now banned all products from BMS Foods from entering the country while they investigate the situation.
While the BMS Foods containers and one sample of breaded shrimp tested positive for cesium-137, no food products that made it to market, including the Great Value frozen shrimp, have tested positive, according to the FDA.
However, the agency still sent the eye-catching warning because “the product appears to have been prepared, packed or held under insanitary conditions.”
The FDA said it would continue investigating the shrimp and other products recently imported by BMS Foods.
“No implicated shrimp products will enter U.S. commerce until the company resolves the conditions” that led to the alert, the FDA said.
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