FDA blew the whistle on radioactive shrimp from Indonesia that has families checking their freezers

The FDA just dropped a bombshell that’s got American families racing to their freezers.

Walmart sold shrimp contaminated with radioactive material across 13 states, and now federal officials are scrambling to warn the public before more people get exposed.

And the details of how this dangerous seafood made it onto American dinner tables will make your blood boil.

Radioactive cesium found in frozen shrimp sold at Walmart

U.S. Customs and Border Protection caught Indonesian shrimp shipments containing Cesium-137, a man-made radioactive isotope that’s been linked to cancer, genetic damage, and organ failure when consumed over time.

The contaminated products came from PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, doing business as BMS Foods, an Indonesian seafood processor that’s now on the FDA’s red list.

Federal agents detected the radioactive material at four major U.S. ports – Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami – after scanning shipping containers from Indonesia.

Testing confirmed the presence of Cesium-137 in one sample of breaded shrimp at levels that the FDA admits "could represent a potential health concern for those exposed to this level of Cs-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."¹

Think about that for a second.

We’re talking about radioactive contamination in food that American families were putting on their dinner tables.

The FDA is now recommending a recall of specific Great Value frozen raw shrimp lots sold at Walmart stores across Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia.

The contaminated lot codes are 8005540-1, 8005538-1, and 8005539-1, all with a "Best by" date of March 15, 2027.

Here’s what makes this story even more disturbing

While the FDA insists that contaminated shipments were "denied entry into the U.S.," they also admitted that Walmart received shrimp shipments from the same Indonesian supplier after the radiation alert was issued.

So let me get this straight.

Federal agents detected radioactive contamination in shipping containers, but somehow products from the same contaminated facility still made it to Walmart shelves across 13 states?

That’s exactly the kind of bureaucratic failure that puts American families at risk.

The FDA’s own testing found Cesium-137 levels of 68.48 Bq/kg in the breaded shrimp sample – not high enough to trigger their "intervention levels" but significant enough to warn against long-term consumption combined with other radiation exposure.

Now here’s what makes this even worse.

Cesium-137 doesn’t just show up in shrimp by accident. This is radioactive material that gets created in nuclear reactions, and somehow it ended up in seafood that was headed for American dinner tables.

How does that even happen at a food processing facility?

What this really tells us about our food supply

Look, this goes way beyond some bad shrimp from Indonesia.

It’s about the fundamental problem of relying on foreign food producers who don’t meet American safety standards to feed American families.

While our government talks tough about "food safety," we’re importing seafood from facilities that apparently can’t prevent radioactive contamination of their products.

The FDA has now added PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati to their import alert list, which means no products from this facility can enter U.S. commerce until they fix whatever caused the contamination.

But here’s the question nobody in Washington wants to answer: How many other foreign food processors are cutting corners on safety while shipping products to American grocery stores?

This Indonesian shrimp contamination only came to light because U.S. Customs happened to detect radiation in shipping containers.

What about all the other potential contamination that doesn’t set off radiation detectors?

American families deserve to know that the food they’re buying at Walmart – or any other store – meets the highest safety standards.

Instead, we’re finding out after the fact that radioactive seafood made it onto grocery store shelves across 13 states.

If you’ve purchased Great Value frozen raw shrimp from Walmart recently, check those lot codes and throw away any products that match the contaminated batches.

Your family’s health isn’t worth the risk of long-term radiation exposure from foreign suppliers who can’t maintain basic safety standards.

¹ FDA, "FDA Warns Public to Avoid Eating Shrimp Potentially Contaminated with Radioactive Material," FDA.gov, August 19, 2025.