Does The Capital Region Need To Worry About Radioactive Shrimp at Walmart?

It is never a good thing to read that your food could be contaminated by something radioactive. However that is the case right now for certain shrimp that is sold at Walmart stores in the United States.

The FDA issued a warning to customers that shrimp coming in from Indonesia could have low levels of a radioactive substance called Cs-137. That was detected in the shipping containers in which the shrimp was transported in. Kind of scary to think that eating this shrimp could potentially be harmful.

From the FDA,

FDA is working with distributors and retailers that received product from PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati after the date of first detection of Cs-137 by Customs & Border Protection (CBP), but from shipments that did not alert for Cs-137, to recommend that firms conduct a recall.

Is the radioactive shrimp in New York?

The answer is no. New York did not get shipments of shrimp from these places. The only states that got these shipments were AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MO, MS, OH, OK, PA, TX, and WV.

The FDA also added that this shrimp never made it to US commerce, aka it never hit the shelves as far as they know. But the Cs-137, if ingested in small doses for long enough can lead to causing cancer. So they've asked Walmart to recall the product just out of caution.

Read More: Upstate New York Walmart Named Most Impressive 

Capital Region residents don't need to worry about this particular recall, thankfully. If you might be traveling to one of these states and did purchase Great Value brand frozen shrimp and are worried, these are the numbers you need to look out for.

• Great Value brand frozen raw shrimp, lot code: 8005540-1, Best by Date: 3/15/2027
• Great Value brand frozen raw shrimp, lot code: 8005538-1, Best by Date: 3/15/2027
• Great Value brand frozen raw shrimp, lot code: 8005539-1, Best by Date: 3/15/2027