The Food & Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat, sell or serve specific frozen shrimp sold at Walmart due to possible radioactive contamination.
In a press release issued Tuesday, the FDA said U.S. Customs and Border Protection alerted them that a radioactive isotope known as Cesium-137, or Cs-137, was detected in some packages of shrimp sold under Walmart’s Great Value brand.
The isotope was detected in shipping containers at four U.S. ports that belonged to BMS Foods, an Indonesia-based company. In addition, frozen shrimp from the company also tested positive for Cesium-137.
The FDA stressed that none of the shrimp that tested positive for the isotope has entered the U.S. food supply, but the agency is recommending a recall on all BMS products.
The possibly radioactive shrimp was reportedly sold at Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia under the following lots:
The level of Cesium-137 detected in the imported shrimp is below the FDA threshold for “levels of concern” for imported foods, and the agency’s release said the product’s level of the isotope “would not pose an acute hazard to consumers.”
However, the FDA also noted that repeated low-dose exposure to the isotope carries an “elevated risk of cancer, resulting from damage to DNA within living cells of the body.”
Anyone who has recently purchased raw frozen shrimp from Walmart that fits the description is asked to throw it away and not eat or serve the product.