FDA detected Cesium-137 in a shipment of frozen breaded shrimp from Indonesian company BMS Foods bound for Walmart. Measured level was 68 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) in one shrimp sample and in shipping containers. FDA considers 1,200 Bq/kg the threshold for dangerous contamination, so the detected amounts do not pose an acute hazard to consumers. Consumers are advised to discard Great Value-branded bags from that shipment, though no contaminated bags appear to have reached Walmart stores. Eating a small amount is unlikely to cause serious harm, but large consumption could increase low-level radiation exposure and potential health risk. Only one shipment is known to have been affected, limiting the scope of exposure.
The Food and Drug Administration definitely wants the public to avoid eating those potentially radioactive frozen shrimp bags sold at Walmart - but if you have a little, as a hazardous little treat, it probably won't kill you. In its advisory warning about the potential contamination, the FDA noted that although the nuclear byproduct Cesium-137 (Cs-137) was indeed detected in a shipment of frozen shrimp from the Indonesian company BMS Foods to Walmart, the amount wasn't high enough to pose any serious risk unless you binge it.
As the agency explains, Cs-137 was found at levels of 68 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) - a unit that measures radioactivity - in one sample of breaded frozen shrimp and in shipping containers used to transport the product. But the FDA doesn't consider any food product to be dangerously contaminated with Cs-137 unless it reaches a level of 1,200 Bq/kg, meaning that the amounts detected would not, per the press release, "pose an acute hazard to consumers."
While the FDA is nevertheless advising people to throw away any of Walmart's "Great Value"-branded bags of shrimp they might have in their freezers, the agency insists there's very little risk of getting super sick if you ate some already. This is especially true because, as the agency explains, there was only one known shipment of contaminated shrimp, and none of those bags seem to have made their way to any Walmart stores after the Cs-137 was detected at American ports.
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