Walmart shrimp recall expands after contamination concerns

August 24, 2025

 

The [U.S.] Food and Drug Administration has expanded its recall of potentially radioactive shrimp to include additional states, Parade reports.

 

The expanded recall now affects consumers in Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia and Washington. This follows an earlier advisory that affected Great Value brand Frozen Raw Ez Peel Tail-On Shrimp sold in 2-pound bags at Walmart stores across 13 states.

 

Southwind Foods, LLC of Carson, California, issued a voluntary recall Thursday for a limited quantity of frozen shrimp due to potential contamination with Cesium-137, a radioactive byproduct of nuclear fission used in certain medical devices and measurement gauges.

 

Federal investigators have linked the contamination to frozen shrimp products processed by PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, operating as BMS Foods, of Indonesia, Parade said.

 

(more)

 

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/08/walmart-shrimp-recall-expands-after-contamination-concerns.html

 

 

More potentially radioactive frozen shrimp recalled, FDA warns — see the current list

The FDA is advising customers to throw out even more brands of shrimp products

 

August 23, 2025

 

...

U.S. Customs and Border Protection detected Cs-137 in shipping containers at four ports in the United States. The FDA tested a sample of frozen shrimp from Indonesia’s BMS Foods, which came back positive for Cs-137. No shrimp that has tested positive for Cs-137 has entered the U.S. food supply, according to the FDA.

...

The frozen shrimp product, according to the FDA’s press release, 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.”

...

For customers who’ve recently purchased any of the affected frozen shrimp products as described above, the FDA recommends that they be thrown out immediately.

...

The FDA has also added Indonesia’s BMS Foods to a new import alert for chemical contamination. Products from the firm will no longer enter the United States until they’ve “resolved the conditions that gave rise to the appearance of the violation.”

 

(more)

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/article/more-potentially-radioactive-frozen-shrimp-recalled-fda-warns--see-the-current-list-173449341.html

 

Mod's note: the above-linked news report includes the full list of the various frozen shrimp brands, and the affected lot codes, that are subject to the contamination recalls.

 

The impacted brands, but only particular products and lot codes as listed in the linked news report, are:

--Great Value Frozen Raw Ez Peel Tail-On Shrimp sold in 2-pound bags at Walmart stores

--Arctic Shores Seafood Co.

--Best Yet

--First Street

--Great American Seafood Imports Co.

--Sand Bar

 

The interesting question, of course, is if these contaminated frozen shrimp products were shipped to the U.S. by an Indonesian supplier, would that same supplier potentially have sold the same products into its more local Southeast Asian countries market... where perhaps the radiation detection capabilities are not as robust as in the U.S.?

 

12 hours ago, Amethyst said:

The interesting question, of course, is if these contaminated frozen shrimp products were shipped to the U.S. by an Indonesian supplier, would that same supplier potentially have sold the same products into its more local Southeast Asian countries market... where perhaps the radiation detection capabilities are not as robust as in the U.S.?

You're missing the real story here.

These exporters rent containers to send their goods. They are rented to many companies and move around the world constantly carrying all sorts of cargo, even if it's a freezer container - unplugged a month before it could have been carrying a leaky medical device.

There's no way in this world that the shrimp itself was contaminated with radioactive material - it was something left over in the container from a previous voyage.

The shrimp company will however almost certainly be left holding the bill for this.

You're talking about the shipping containers, but it was the SHRIMP that also tested positive for radioactivity.

 

Quote

U.S. Customs and Border Protection detected Cs-137 in shipping containers at four ports in the United States. The FDA tested a sample of frozen shrimp from Indonesia’s BMS Foods, which came back positive for Cs-137. [emphasis added]