U.S. officials are investigating radioactive contamination linked to frozen shrimp imported from Indonesia after testing found Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope, in some shipments.
TUESDAY, Sept. 9, 2025 — U.S. officials are investigating radioactive contamination linked to frozen shrimp imported from Indonesia after testing found Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope, in some shipments.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said Friday that the contamination may have come from an industrial metal-melting facility at the same site as a shrimp processing plant in Serang, west of Jakarta. “Preliminary information suggests that it may have originated from activities at a metal melting facility at the same industrial site or from the disposal of scrap metal junk to other areas of the site,” IAEA spokesperson Fredrik Dahl toldThe company that exported the shrimp, PT Bahari Makmur Sejati , has recalled more than 300 shipping containers of shrimp headed to the U.S., Dahl said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an import alert to block additional shipments from the company,BMS Foods shipped about 12 million pounds of shrimp to U.S. ports in Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Savannah in July and August, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection records. Last month, the FDA confirmed Cesium-137 in containers sent to four U.S. ports and in a sample of imported frozen shrimp. That discovery triggered multiple recalls of shrimp sold at Walmart, Kroger and other retailers. This week, Tampa Maid Foods LLC, based in Florida, recalled more products, including breaded butterfly shrimp sold under the Admiral of the Fleet and Portico Seafood Classic labels. The FDA says none of the contaminated shrimp has been released for sale. Still, it warned that long-term exposure to low levels of Cesium-137 could pose a “potential health concern.” Testing showed that contaminated shrimp had about 68 becquerels of Cesium-137 per kilogram, well below the FDA's safety limit of 1,200 becquerels per kilogram.Experts theorize that the contamination may have originated from recycled medical equipment that previously contained Cesium-137, which is used in devices to treatIf not properly removed, the radioactive material can spread into the environment. “If they get broken up in some sort of crushing mechanism, then all of a sudden, it's basically a salt,” Steve Biegalski, a nuclear medicine expert at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told“It would be like you taking a giant salt shaker and spreading it all over the kitchen floor,” he explained. The National Nuclear Security Administration has sent emergency teams on multiple deployments to “isolate and characterize the extent of Cesium-137 contamination,” according to the U.S. Energy Department.
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