A company that already recalled shrimp because of potential radioactive contamination has confirmed that it is expanding the recall to include more shrimp products processed by an Indonesian company.
On Aug. 29, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released an update on its website from California-based Southwind Foods LLC that the company expanded a voluntary recall of frozen shrimp that was distributed between July 17 and Aug. 8 to retailers, distributors, and wholesalers in Alabama, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, and Washington state.
An Epoch Times review of the initial recall notice from Southwind Foods shows that 13 products were being recalled. The Aug. 29 update shows that 14 products, including frozen raw and cooked shrimp, are under recall.
“The FDA is actively investigating reports of Cesium-137 (Cs-137) contamination in shipping containers and frozen shrimp products processed by PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati (doing business as BMS Foods) of Indonesia. No illnesses have been reported to date,” the update said.
The company was placed on the FDA’s import alert list.
Southwind’s initial frozen shrimp recall was confirmed on Aug. 21, but at least two other companies, such as Florida-based Beaver Street Fisheries and Seattle-based AquaStar USA, have recalled shrimp products because of the possible presence of cesium-137, a radioactive isotope.
In a notice on Aug. 28, AquaStar became the latest U.S. company to recall shrimp and confirmed that about 18,000 bags of Kroger Mercado Cooked Medium Peeled Tail-Off Shrimp were recalled “because they may have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby they may have become contaminated with cesium-137.”
As with Southwind, the shrimp were processed by PT Bahari Makmur Sejati, the FDA said.
Approximately 26,460 Cocktail Shrimp 6-ounce packages sold under the Walmart Great Value brand were also recalled last month by Aquastar because the products may have been exposed to the radioactive isotope while being processed.
It’s not clear how the shrimp were possibly exposed to cesium-137, which is produced during nuclear reactions and explosions. PT Bahari Makmur Sejati does not appear to have issued a public comment on the FDA import alert or notices that its products were recalled. The Epoch Times contacted the company for comment on Sept. 3.
On its website, the company, which the FDA says does business as BMS Food, says that it “has focused on production of aquaculture Penaeus Vannamei in Indonesia,” referring to the whiteleg shrimp species that is commonly found in the Pacific Ocean.
The full list of Southwind’s products under recall can be accessed on the FDA’s website.
A list of shrimp products under recall by Southwind Foods as of Aug. 29, 2025, due to a possibility of radioactive contamination. (Food and Drug Administration)
Last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at a Cabinet meeting that the FDA is ramping up inspections of shrimp being imported into the United States.
“We have now increased FDA inspections of shrimp to make sure that Americans are not eating ... contaminated shrimp,” Kennedy said.
He said that a shipment that was contaminated with cesium-137 had recently been stopped.
“The primary health effect of concern following longer term, repeated low dose exposure ... is an elevated risk of cancer, resulting from damage to DNA within living cells of the body,” the FDA warned in an advisory on potentially radioactive shrimp.
