Apair of U.S. senators who have long opposed shrimp imports are using a spate of high-profile recalls due to potential radioactive contamination to hammer major grocery chains for continuing to sell foreign shrimp.
The recalls began in August, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an advisory about imported shrimp supplied by Indonesia-based processor PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, which does business as BMS Foods. According to the FDA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detected radioactive isotope Caesium-137 (Cs-137) in shipping containers at multiple U.S. ports, including one shipment of breaded shrimp supplied by PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati.
The announcement has led to nearly a dozen recall alerts and the government deciding to block shrimp imports from the Indonesian company, wreaking havoc on many U.S. importers, retailers, and processors.
Officials from Gulf Coast states – who have bemoaned the impact of imports on the domestic shrimping sector for years and criticized the presence of antibiotics and other contaminants detected in foreign products – have seized on the scandal to bolster their campaign against foreign shrimp. In August, Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser asked U.S. President Donald Trump to implement a per-pound USD 0.10 (EUR 0.09) seafood inspection fee in response to the recalls. Also in August, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the FDA had increased inspections of shrimp imports following the recalls.
“South Asian nations are now dumping shrimp on our country. Their shrimp is heavily contaminated,” Kennedy said. “We just stopped a shipment that was contaminated with Cs-137, which is radioactive. They’re farming these shrimps, and they use bactericides and antibiotics and all kinds of chemicals, and the shrimp are so contaminated the European nations won’t take them. So, they’re dumping them all here.”
Now, U.S. Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) are using the recalls to criticize major American retailers for continuing to offer imported shrimp products to their customers.
“Despite these numerous concerns, [you] continue to sell imported shrimp at your stores, rather than support domestic fisheries that offer a safer product while supporting small American businesses,” the senators stated in a letter sent to three of the nation’s biggest grocery chains. “Ensuring that American families have access to safe, quality food is essential for us to advance President Trump’s agenda to Make America Healthy Again.”
The two senators have sent letters to Walmart, Kroger, and Albertsons.
The nearly identical letters ask the retailers to identify how much shrimp was recalled in the last year, explain how they worked with federal and state agencies in the aftermath, and how the chains use recalls to inform their future purchasing decisions. The senators have also asked for any information on how the companies evaluate risk in buying imported shrimp, whether they use third-party certifications to ensure products are contaminant-free, and if they “have policies in place to prioritize purchasing decisions with domestic companies, including small or local fisheries.”
Kennedy and Cassidy have asked all three retailers to provide responses by 20 November.
Kennedy in particular has been a vocal opponent of shrimp imports and has used his position in Congress to discuss possible health concerns posed by the Indonesian shrimp recalls.
“Mr. President, this is a photograph of the alien from the movie ‘Alien.’ This is what you could end up looking like if you eat some of the raw frozen shrimp being sent to the U.S. by other countries,” Kennedy said on the U.S. House floor in September. “If you eat it, how could you end up looking like the alien in ‘Alien?’ – because the shrimp was radioactive. I kid you not. It had a radioactive isotope in it called Cs-137. It will kill you. Even if it doesn’t turn you into the alien if you eat this stuff, I guarantee you will grow an extra ear.”
The FDA has repeatedly noted in its guidance around the recalls that the level of Cs-137 found in the shipping containers was not high enough to cause immediate harm.
“The level of Cs-137 detected in the detained shipment was approximately 68 Bq/kg, which is below FDA’s Derived Intervention Level for Cs-137 of 1200 Bq/kg. At this level, the product would not pose an acute hazard to consumers. Avoiding products like the shipment FDA tested with similar levels of Cs-137 is a measure intended to reduce exposure to low-level radiation that could have health impacts with continued exposure over a long period of time,” the FDA said. “The primary health effect of concern following longer-term, repeated, low-dose exposure (e.g., through consumption of contaminated food or water over time) is an elevated risk of cancer.”
The FDA has also continuously affirmed that no product contaminated by Cs-137 has entered U.S. markets.
Cassidy and Kennedy also criticized the administration of former President Joe Biden for not prioritizing foreign food inspections; however, a recent ProPublica report found that the number of foreign food inspections has dropped precipitously under U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term.
Multiple current and former FDA employees told the publication that the Trump administration’s layoffs at the agency had left the agency understaffed and unable to complete as many inspections as the past two years. Based on public data, the report found that inspections were down roughly 30 percent and the government is expected to complete the fewest number of inspections since 2011, except the two years following the Covid-19 pandemic when travel was severely curtailed.
The radioactive contamination was ultimately linked to work taking place at a steel factory near PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati’s shrimp-packaging facility. In October, Indonesian officials announced it cleared several factories of contamination and reached a deal with the FDA that will allow thousands of containers of Indonesian shrimp to finally enter U.S. ports.
