During a congressional hearing Wednesday, Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy warned legislators about radioactive shrimp that “could turn you into the ‘Alien.’”
In August, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a public release advising Americans not to eat, sell or serve certain shrimp imported from an Indonesian exporter called PT Bahari Makmur Sejati. During the hearing on 2026 defense programs and policy legislation, Kennedy expressed his concerns about foreign frozen shrimp being imported following the FDA recall.
“Mr. President, this is a photograph of the alien from the movie ‘Alien,’” Kennedy said. “This is what you could end up looking like if you eat some of the raw, frozen shrimp being sent to the United States by other countries. Now let me tell you what I’m talking about. In late August, the FDA found that raw, frozen shrimp from Indonesia was being sold in Walmart, specifically in Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. It was being sold under the Walmart label called the Great Value Label.”
“If you eat it, how could you end up looking like the alien in the ‘Alien’? Because the shrimp was radioactive. I kid you not. It had a radioactive isotope in it called cesium-137. It’ll kill you. Even if it doesn’t turn you into the alien if you eat this stuff, I guarantee you’ll grow an extra ear,” Kennedy said. “That was bad enough. Obviously, the FDA issued a recall. A few days later, it happened again. The FDA and NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration], which I’ll talk about in a second, found that there were 26,460 packages of shrimp cocktail and 18,000 bags of frozen cooked shrimp being sold once again at Walmart and at Krogers throughout the United States containing the same radioactive isotope.”
According to the FDA, the concerns centered on the shrimp potentially containing a radioactive isotope of cesium known as Cesium-137, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection first detected during an inspection. With other shipments from the Indonesian exporter testing negative for Cesium-137, some shrimp still reached U.S. companies like AquaStar, Southwind Foods and Beaver Street Fisheries, all of which have received recall warnings.
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With the investigation still ongoing, the FDA stated that “no product that has tested positive or alerted for Cesium-137 (Cs-137) has entered the U.S. marketplace” as of Tuesday. However, the agency noted that PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati violated the “Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act in that it appears to have been prepared, packed, or held under insanitary conditions whereby it may have become contaminated with Cs-137 and may pose a safety concern.”
Kennedy questioned how the shrimp was able to enter the U.S., attributing it to other countries not following “the same rules” as America for imported products, and also criticized the NOAA’s low inspection rate of foreign seafood, saying that “even China does a better job than the United States.”
“If you eat enough of the foreign shrimp, you become resistant to certain bacteria here in America because the antibiotics don’t work on it anymore. Because you’ve eaten so many shrimp that contains the antibiotics. This is unconscionable, and it should not be happening in the United States of America,” Kennedy said.
“Now, I’m biased. I believe in homegrown Louisiana shrimp. Fresh. Out of the Gulf. Not radioactive,” Kennedy added. “But I understand that some stores prefer to buy foreign shrimp because it’s cheaper. Now we know why. The damn stuff’s radioactive. And NOAA needs to do a better job of inspecting the shrimp that is sold from other countries who don’t abide by the same standards we do to the consumers in the United States of America.”
In May, H.R. 3324, also known as the Safer Shrimp Imports Act, was introduced by Republican Mississippi Rep. Mike Ezell. While the bill has been referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, it seeks to amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to establish new requirements for foreign shrimp facilities importing into the U.S.
Among the new requirements, the bill would have the U.S. Health and Human Services make agreements with every country that exports shrimp to the U.S. and ensure that their shrimp facilities meet U.S. food safety standards. If foreign importers refuse to make an agreement or fail to meet FDA standards, their shrimp can be blocked from entering America.
