In case you didn’t or haven’t seen it, appears Walmart/Sams may have gotten some bad shrimp!
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday said it is actively investigating after a shipment of Walmart shrimp tested positive for a man-made radioactive material.
Officials collected multiple samples for radionuclide analysis, confirming Cs-137 in one sample of breaded shrimp. The shrimp supplier, PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati (aka BMS Foods), was added to the “red list,” meaning its products cannot be sold in the U.S. until the issue is resolved.
FDA officials said consumers should not eat or serve Great Value raw frozen shrimp from Walmart with lot codes: 8005540-1, 8005538-1 and 8005539-1.
Full article, HERE from Fox News.
This one is odd, in that normally it’s e coli or something like that. CS-137 has a half life of 30 years, and this is the warning from the CDC website…
Exposure to Cs-137 can increase the risk for cancer. Internal exposure to Cs-137, through ingestion or inhalation, allows the radioactive material to be distributed in the soft tissues, especally muscle tissue, exposing these tissues to the beta particles and gamma radiation increasing cancer risk.
Not particularly something one wants to eat…
Just sayin…
So, if you’ve bought Shrimp at Wally World lately, check those lot codes, and if what you bought in in one of those lots, dump it.
Here’s the release from the FDA:
https://tinyurl.com/4ya22ajv
( goes to http://www.fda.gov )
Cs-137 is a fission product, created from the fission of U-235 or Pu-239. I think it unlikely the shrimp were contaminate by processing under “insanitary” conditions in Indonesia. Why would the processing center have CS-137 contaminating the processing areas? I suspect that the shrimp were harvested from former bomb testing areas. Just my two cents worth, but I will wait and see.
Also my usual complaint about these announcements is that no quantitative information is provided regarding the amount of hazardous material was found or what the actual health hazard is if one had happened to ingest the shrimp before the announcement was made. Just OMG it’s radioooactiiiive.
Since Cesium 137 is produced by fission, it would behoove them to find the source.
I would go hungry before I bought any seafood from Wal Mart. My theory is that there is a certain distance inland at which you should avoid seafood entirely. Not my thing.
X2
On Insty, a commenter posted that one shipment of shrimp (that was not released into the US) tested at 68 Bq/Kg, which is about half of what bananas typically register. Admittedly, bananas’ radioactivity comes from potassium instead of cesium, but most people are panicking over OMG RADIATION!!!
Should have been sold as popcorn shrimp. Or, rather POP!KABOOM!shrimp with mushroom (cloud) flavoring.
As mentioned, the levels are low enough I’m not worried about them on their own – what I am worried is about is where they picked up a synthetic isotope.
Either the shrimp were stored next to an unshielded quantity of reactor waste, or they were harvested from waters affected by atomic testing.
The most likely answer is that these shrimp are really Chinese and were either harvested from an area where China has dumped reactor waste (all of their testing has been well inland), or the harvesting was illegally done in US waters near Bikini Atoll – given what I’ve read about renegade Chinese fishing wherever they want, the second is more likely.
It would be great if the last option could be proven, because then their illegal fishing would get formal pushback that is long past due.
But I won’t hold my breath…
All- Agree, probably ‘farmed’ in a blast crater from a nuke test… sigh… And as Ag pointed out, NOTHING on specific levels found. This is yet another reason to stop this crap and stop imports from parts of the world where NO testing is done.
I saw that. Worrying, because I do like shrimp from time to time.
LSP- So do I!!!
I have a question.
Why, exactly, did they test this shipment of shrimp for radioactivity?
Actually, I have several questions.
Do they USUALLY test food imports for radioactivity?
If not universal, why test THIS shipment – what triggers the testing?
How many times have shipments tested positive?
If 68bq/kg is less than bananas, and since I have never heard of a shipment of bananas being reported as radioactive, who set the threshold for reporting, who released this report, and why?
Pretty much sums up my questions on the subject. I’m left with one more: “Testing imported foods for radioactivity, Why or Why not?”
A new twist on NBC Warfare by a new player?
“‘Curiouser and curioser,’said Alice.”
“A new twist on NBC Warfare by a new player?”
Although possible, if it is, they are playing the LOOOOOONNNGGG game.
At the radioactivity levels reported, a vanishingly small uptick in cancer rates among seafood eaters in 30 or 40 years seems unlikely to be a war-winning strategy.
Still, your point is a good one. If you can disrupt the US food supply chain through (unjustified) fear of radioactive contamination, it makes it easier to win – whatever form winning takes.
I struggle to identify the players though.
If it is a deliberate act, is it:
– an external player,
– a group within the US testing bureaucracy deliberately spreading alarm for whatever reason,
or
– elements of the US-based shrimp industry?
My wild guess is door number 2 – elements of the testing bureaucracy justifying their existence.
Comes from chuna. These people have done this before with pet food, children’s toys, and so forth. chuna is NOT our friends.