FDA Investigating Possibly Radioactive Shrimp Sold at Walmart, Warns Public Not to Eat

ABC7 ^ | Tuesday, August 19, 2025

[meadsjn]

I avoid the meat from WalMart and Costco like the plague.

[telescope115]

I was joking, but thanks for the information. I didn’t know that. The shrimp may have come from illegal Chinese fishing off the coast of Japan near where the Japanese reactor blew up from that big earthquake.

There are times I wish we lived close to a coast where seafood was locally caught and cheaper.

[Revel]

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster released significant amounts of radioactive materials, including Cesium-137, into the environment. Cesium-137 is a long-lived radioactive isotope with a half-life of approximately 30 years, making it a major concern for long-term contamination.

[SunkenCiv]

LOL!

Authorities need to storm into the stores and seize ee ‘em!

[Ezekiel]

You’ve got that right. Those who can tell the time, know how to open doors. It’s the super seemple seecret code that got corrupted over time:

“Open see see um!”

[Bikkuri]

Anyone that eats that nasty bottom dweller, ...

[thepoodlebites]

Fukushima?
—
Possibly. The shrimp was from Indonesia. The radioactive material from Fukushima would tend to sink to the bottom, where the shrimp feed. The Cesium-137 was detected at 68 Bq/kg, far below the 1,200 Bq/kg threshold for concern.
1 becquerel (Bq) = 1 count per second (cps).
68 Bq (cps) x 60 cpm/cps = 4080 cpm.
Background is ~60 cpm, mildly radioactive (varies depending on the isotope).

From what I remember about rule-of-thumb,
100,000 cpm = 0.1 mrem/hr (Gamma).
1200 Bq = 72,000 cpm, <0.1 mrem/hr, not dangerous unless consumed.
Note: 2.2 pounds of steamed shrimp is good eating.

[GenXPolymath]

There are two likely sources of Cs 137 in these shrimp the most lively is they where feed fish meal pellets made with bottom trawler sourced fish from off the Japanese coast. Cs137 bioaccumulates up the food web taking predator fish and grinding them up to fish meal and feeding that to farmed shrimp absolutely would put this element in them.

The other source is Cs 137 is also sometimes used as a gamma emitter for irradiation of foods.it’s also used in the medical field for nuclear medicine particularly cervical cancers. Its also used in industrial settings for flow meters that cannot contact the fluids flowing, it’s also used in the oil industry as a gamma source for wireline logging using active gamma emissions. It is a fairly common use nuclear isotope.

That said having some of it unconstrained and in contact with water would rapidly contaminate that water stream and anything down stream of it. The water source for these shrimp could have just as easily had a dumped cesium gamma source somewhere in the watershed leaking it into everything and everyone down stream.

[logi_cal869]

“...throw away...”

Radiologically contaminated food.

smh

[catnipman]

“radiation free” on the package doesn’t mean what you though it did ...

[logi_cal869]

It’s much worse than that. For the record:

The government ceased monitoring [at least publicly] radioactive isotopes from Fukushima well over a decade ago and the site has been leaking/dumping radioactive water continuously ever since due to natural springs flooding the corium (the melted cores).

I’ve not consumed Pacific seafood since that time, knowledgeable of the effects of Cesium 137, which mimics calcium (goes to the bones), has a half-life of 30 years and in under 2 minutes at that time a single particle emits the power of almost 20 CT scans to the surrounding living tissue of the victim.

The whitewash continues...

[Freedom4US]

Rest easy! I looked it up, and while the internet is certainly not definitive, it would appear that Cesium 137 is both a Beta and Gamma emitter.

This means you can take your Civil Defense geiger counter along with you to the WalMart and test for Enhanced Shrimp.

The poster who pointed out the Radioactive Shrimp must be treated as radioactive hazardous material is undoubtedly correct. If it’s too “hot” to eat or anything else, it must be disposed of properly.

Someone needs to follow up on that. Should be Amusing, if you just Axe the right questions.

[telescope115]

I won’t be surprised if, one of these days, I see someone scanning the seafood AND produce with one, lol!