These shrimp could be seriously fried—but hold the rice.
The Food and Drug Administration issued a recall of Great Value’s frozen raw shrimp Aug. 19 from several different lot codes including 8005538-01, 8005539-01 and 8005540-01 with the expiration date of March 15, 2027 for possible exposure to Cesium-137, a radioactive isotope.
A plant in Indonesia in charge of processing the selected group of seafood, PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, is currently being investigated by the FDA for not informing distributors of the detection of Cesium-137 in its plants. At this point, the recall is preventative, as no bags of shrimp that tested positive for Cesium have entered the U.S. commerce circulation.
But, the level of Cesium found in the seized shipment of frozen shrimp was about 68 becquerels per kilogram—significantly lower than the 1200 becquerels per kilogram the FDA considers warranted to cause serious harm. (Becquerels are the measurement of radioactive decay; one becquerel is equivalent to one second of radioactive decay.)
