FDA Response to Cesium-137 in Imported Shrimp and Spices (2025)

Table of Contents

1. What the FDA Did
2. The First Detection: Shipping Containers and Frozen Shrimp
3. The Levels Measured and the 1,200 Bq/kg Benchmark
4. The August 19 Advisory and the Shrimp Recalls
5. The Clove Detection
6. Import Alert 99-51: Detention at the Border
7. Import Certification: The First Use of Section 801(q)
8. Indonesia’s Certifying Agencies and Shipments Already at Sea
9. Cesium-137 and the Health Concern the FDA Describes
10. What These Actions Do Not Do
11. Dates and Status as of October 11, 2026
12. How the Response Fits the FDA’s Import Tools
13. Primary Documents
14. Key Research Papers
15. Connections

1. What the FDA Did

The FDA’s response came in several steps, each recorded in its own document:

• Early August 2025 — the FDA detected cesium-137 (written Cs-137) in one sample of frozen shrimp from an Indonesian exporter, after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had detected Cs-137 in shipping containers at U.S. ports.
• 14 August 2025 — the FDA posted a new import alert, Import Alert 99-51, for chemical contamination, and placed the shrimp exporter on its “red list.”
• 19 August 2025 — the FDA issued a safety alert advising consumers, distributors and retailers not to eat, sell or serve certain frozen shrimp from that exporter. Several U.S. distributors recalled frozen shrimp over the following weeks.
• Later in 2025 — after CBP alerted the FDA to a container at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port, FDA testing confirmed Cs-137 in one sample of cloves, and an Indonesian spice exporter was added to the same import alert.
• 3 October 2025 — the FDA announced Import Alert 99-52, requiring import certification for shrimp and spices from Java and Lampung Province, effective 31 October 2025.

None of these steps was a Federal Register rule. They were taken through import alerts, a safety alert, recall coordination and a designation of foreign certifying agencies, which are administrative tools the FDA uses at the border. For that reason there is no rulemaking docket or public comment period for this action.

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2. The First Detection: Shipping Containers and Frozen Shrimp

The FDA safety alert’s first entry, dated 19 August 2025, says CBP “alerted FDA to the detection of Cs-137 in shipping containers at four U.S. ports (Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami).” The FDA then collected samples for radionuclide analysis — testing for radioactive forms of elements. It sampled five different shrimp products from one Indonesian shrimp processor. Cs-137 was confirmed in one of them, a frozen breaded shrimp sample. The alert states that there was no detectable Cs-137 in the other four products, and adds that “this does not rule out contamination.”

According to the FDA, all containers and products that tested positive or set off radiation alarms were denied entry into the United States, and the detained shipment “did not enter U.S. commerce.” The agency said it was coordinating with CBP and working with Indonesian seafood regulatory authorities to investigate the root cause of the contamination. The FDA documents do not identify a source of the contamination.

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3. The Levels Measured and the 1,200 Bq/kg Benchmark

Radioactivity in food is measured in becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg). One becquerel is one radioactive decay per second, so the figure describes how many atoms in a kilogram of food give off radiation each second.

The FDA reported these measurements:

• Frozen breaded shrimp: 68.48 Bq/kg, plus or minus 8.25 Bq/kg (the FDA’s response page rounds this to “approximately 68 Bq/kg”).
• Cloves: 732.43 Bq/kg in one sample.

The FDA compares these figures with its Derived Intervention Level (DIL) for Cs-137, which is 1,200 Bq/kg. The DIL is the FDA’s benchmark concentration for Cs-137 in food; the response page links the agency’s supporting document on guidance levels for radionuclides in domestic and imported foods. Both measured values are below it, and the response page states: “The FDA has not detected Cs-137 in any product above the current derived intervention levels for Cs-137 (1200 Bq/kg).” The safety alert says that at the shrimp level the product “would not pose an acute hazard to consumers.”

The FDA nonetheless treated the shrimp finding as a concern. It concluded that the level “could represent a potential health concern for those exposed to this level of Cs-137 from consumption of the shrimp over an extended period of time combined with radiation that exists in the environment and from other sources such as medical procedures.” The October 2025 constituent update describes CBP as having detected “high levels of Cesium-137 in multiple shipments of shrimp and in a sample of cloves”; the FDA documents give laboratory-confirmed food values only for the two samples above.

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4. The August 19 Advisory and the Shrimp Recalls

The FDA safety alert, first posted on 19 August 2025 under the title “FDA Advises Public Not to Eat, Sell, or Serve Certain Imported Frozen Shrimp from an Indonesian Firm,” explains why products that never tested positive were recalled. Shrimp from the same processor had reached U.S. stores in shipments that arrived after CBP’s first detection but that did not themselves set off an alarm. The FDA determined that product from the processor “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,” which is a violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the FD&C Act, the main U.S. food and drug law). On that basis the FDA worked with distributors and retailers to recommend recalls.

The alert’s update log records the recalls in sequence:

• 19 August 2025 — the FDA recommended that a national retail chain recall three lots of its store-brand raw frozen shrimp.
• 21–22 August 2025 — two U.S. seafood distributors recalled bagged raw and cooked frozen shrimp, including the store-brand product, sold in a range of states.
• 29 August 2025 — a further U.S. seafood company recalled cocktail shrimp trays and bagged cooked shrimp.
• 19 September 2025 — that company expanded its recall to three further products, about 85,000 bags in total, sold through a grocery chain’s stores in more than 30 states between 12 June and 17 September 2025.
• Late September 2025 — on 23 September the first distributor expanded its recall, and the FDA’s update of 25 September added a recall by a further wholesaler of bagged frozen shrimp and shrimp cocktail products.

The FDA stated that all later recalls tied to the incident would be listed on a separate FDA recall page. The alert repeats that “no product that has tested positive or alerted for Cesium-137 (Cs-137) has entered the U.S. marketplace.” Its advice, as written by the FDA, was that anyone who had recently bought one of the affected lots throw it away and not eat or serve it, that distributors and retailers not sell or serve it, and that anyone who suspects exposure to elevated cesium levels talk to a healthcare provider.

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5. The Clove Detection

The second food was a spice. The FDA’s response page says CBP alerted the FDA to a shipping container at the Los Angeles/Long Beach, California, port in which Cs-137 had been detected. The FDA collected multiple samples, and laboratory results confirmed Cs-137 in one sample of cloves at 732.43 Bq/kg — about ten times the shrimp figure, and still below the 1,200 Bq/kg DIL.

The shipment was detained and did not enter the United States. The FDA added the exporting Indonesian spice firm to Import Alert 99-51 for all of its spice products. The agency did not issue consumer advice for cloves; asked why, the response page answers that no product that had tested positive or alerted for Cs-137 had entered the U.S. marketplace and that the FDA had received no reports of illnesses. The site’s Clove page covers the spice itself.

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6. Import Alert 99-51: Detention at the Border

An import alert tells FDA inspectors at ports of entry that the agency already holds enough evidence to detain a firm’s products without examining each shipment — a status called Detention Without Physical Examination (DWPE). Firms on an alert’s “red list” have their shipments held, and those shipments can be refused entry.

Import Alert 99-51 was posted on 14 August 2025 for chemical contamination under section 402(a)(4) of the FD&C Act, the provision on food held under insanitary conditions. The FDA’s response page explains that it uses the agency’s traditional import-alert authority under section 801(a)(3). As of 18 September 2025, the listing covered all shrimp products and all spice products from the two Indonesian firms at every U.S. port of entry.

The FDA says the firms stay on the list until they provide information that “adequately demonstrate[s]” they have resolved the conditions behind the violation — for example by finding the root cause of the contamination and taking corrective action. The response page notes that additional firms could be added in response to the FDA’s increased screening of products coming from Indonesia.

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7. Import Certification: The First Use of Section 801(q)

On 3 October 2025 the FDA announced that, effective 31 October 2025, it would require import certification for:

• shrimp from the island of Java and from Lampung Province on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia; and
• all spices from the island of Java and from Lampung Province on the island of Sumatra.

The requirement is set out in Import Alert 99-52, titled “Detention Without Physical Examination of Certain Human Food Products from Certain Regions in Indonesia Subject to the Requirement of Import Certification per Section 801(q).” The constituent update describes it as “the first use of this Congressional authorized tool to address ongoing food safety problems while keeping trade flowing for products which meet the certification requirements.”

Congress gave the FDA this authority, section 801(q) of the FD&C Act, through the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). In the constituent update’s words, it lets the FDA require “certification or other assurance that imported food meets U.S. requirements before the food can leave the port of export.” Under Import Alert 99-52, a certifying entity designated by the FDA must give assurances that covered products “are not contaminated with Cesium-137.” Products without the required certificate are subject to detention at the border.

The FDA describes the alert as creating “a tiered approach with different certification requirements based on contamination risk levels.” Its response page explains how the two alerts work together:

• Firms with confirmed contamination must first be removed from Import Alert 99-51 by showing they have fixed the cause, and must then also obtain certification under Import Alert 99-52.
• Facilities in the affected regions with no specific evidence of contamination are subject only to the certification requirement, which the FDA says “maintain[s] market access while providing enhanced safety assurance through pre-shipment testing and certification.”

In the FDA’s words, import certification “requires steps be taken prior to importing to the U.S., while Import Alerts are actions taken on shipments arrived at U.S. ports of entry.”

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8. Indonesia’s Certifying Agencies and Shipments Already at Sea

Under section 801(q)(3), a certifying entity may be an agency or representative of the government of the exporting country, or an entity accredited under the FDA’s Third Party Program. The FDA designated two Indonesian government agencies:

• for shrimp and shrimp products, the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Quality Assurance Agency (MFQAA) of Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries; and
• for spices, Indonesia’s food and drug agency, BPOM.

Each agency, the FDA says, is responsible for “providing a mechanism for industry to obtain required screening and sampling of shipments of food covered under import certification prior to products being exported for the U.S. and provide certificates to FDA.” The FDA published designation letters for both agencies, each with three appendices dated 31 October 2025 covering radionuclide scanning and product testing, communication and verification practices, and the data required on certificates. Under section 801(q)(4) the FDA may refuse a certificate it judges not valid or reliable.

The FDA also made a transition allowance. Citing “significant feedback from government partners and industry stakeholders” about long shipping times, it said that for containers an importer can show were on the water on or before Monday 13 October 2025, it would apply alternative screening procedures instead of the certification requirement, even if they arrived after 31 October 2025.

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9. Cesium-137 and the Health Concern the FDA Describes

The FDA safety alert describes Cs-137 as “a radioisotope of cesium that is man-made through nuclear reactions.” Because it is widespread worldwide, the FDA notes, trace amounts can be found in soil, food and air. FDA food monitoring focuses on radionuclides “that are not normally present and are generally the result of human activities,” and the agency evaluates “any unexpected finding of Cs-137 in a food product” case by case.

On health effects, the alert states: “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, resulting from damage to DNA within living cells of the body.” The FDA describes keeping such products off the market as “a measure intended to reduce exposure to low-level radiation that could have health impacts with continued exposure over a long period of time.” It refers readers to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on Cs-137 and health.

The research papers listed further down this page describe how Cs-137 has been measured in seafood after earlier nuclear accidents and what large studies have found about cancer risk at low radiation doses. The site’s Radiation and Physical Exposures page covers radiation as an environmental exposure more broadly.

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10. What These Actions Do Not Do

• The certification requirement covers only shrimp and spices from Java and from Lampung Province on Sumatra. It does not cover shrimp or spices from other regions of Indonesia or from other countries.
• The actions do not rest on any finding above the FDA’s 1,200 Bq/kg intervention level; the FDA reports that it has not detected Cs-137 above that level in any product.
• The FDA reports that no product that tested positive or set off an alarm for Cs-137 entered U.S. commerce. The shrimp recalls covered product from the same processor that was judged to have been held under insanitary conditions, not product in which Cs-137 had been found.
• The FDA did not issue consumer advice for cloves or for spices generally.
• The import certification is not a permanent rule. The FDA says it will apply “until such time that FDA determines the risk of Cesium-137 contamination is no longer associated with products harvested, processed, packed, or held in the geographic regions of concern.”
• The FDA documents do not name the source of the contamination; they describe the root-cause investigation as ongoing.

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11. Dates and Status as of October 11, 2026

• 14 August 2025 — Import Alert 99-51 posted; the shrimp processor added to its red list.
• 19 August 2025 — FDA safety alert on certain frozen shrimp first posted; updated through 7 October 2025 as recalls were added.
• 18 September 2025 — Import Alert 99-51 listing extended to all shrimp and all spice products from the two firms at every U.S. port.
• 3 October 2025 — import certification announced (Import Alert 99-52).
• 13 October 2025 — cut-off date for shipments already at sea to qualify for alternative screening.
• 31 October 2025 — import certification takes effect; Indonesian certifying-agency procedures dated this day.
• 5 October 2026 — the FDA released its “In-Country Assessment Report: Certifying Entity Implementation of the Cesium-137 Import Certification for Shrimp & Spice Products from Indonesia.”

Status as of 11 October 2026: final and in force. The import-certification requirement for shrimp and spices from Java and Lampung Province remains in effect, and the FDA’s response page, last updated 5 October 2026, continues to list both import alerts.

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12. How the Response Fits the FDA’s Import Tools

The FDA calls the October 2025 step the first use of its import-certification authority. The tools it used first in this incident — an import alert, detention, port sampling and refusal of entry, along with recalls of food already in commerce — act on shipments that have reached the United States or food already sold. Certification, as the FDA describes it, moves the check to the exporting country before a shipment leaves. The FDA published a new webpage on its import-certification authority on the same day it announced the first use.

The constituent update presents certification as a complement to the existing tools, one that “works alongside current tools to cover larger volumes of trade while maintaining safety oversight,” and says the FDA can use it “to address ongoing and repeated food safety problems through additional oversight before shipment.” The FDA’s response page also names its information-sharing agreement with Indonesia’s fisheries quality-assurance agency as part of the investigation.

Among the FDA’s other 2025 food actions, the closest in kind are the contaminant limits for lead in baby food, which also rest on a numeric level of a harmful substance in food, and the agency’s post-market review of food chemicals. The full list is on the FDA actions of 2025 hub.

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13. Primary Documents

1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2025–2026). FDA Response to Imported Foods Potentially Contaminated with Cesium-137. FDA program page, content current as of 5 October 2026 — fda.gov response page
2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2025). FDA Advises Public Not to Eat, Sell, or Serve Certain Imported Frozen Shrimp from an Indonesian Firm. FDA safety alert, first posted 19 August 2025, content current as of 7 October 2025 — fda.gov safety alert
3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Human Foods Program (2025). FDA Announces First Use of Import Certification Authority for Certain Shrimp and Spices Potentially Contaminated with Cesium-137. Constituent update, 3 October 2025 — fda.gov constituent update
4. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Import Alert 99-51, chemical contamination (posted 14 August 2025) — accessdata.fda.gov Import Alert 99-51
5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Import Alert 99-52, Detention Without Physical Examination of Certain Human Food Products from Certain Regions in Indonesia Subject to the Requirement of Import Certification per Section 801(q) (effective 31 October 2025) — accessdata.fda.gov Import Alert 99-52
6. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Import Certification (program page on section 801(q) authority, published 3 October 2025) — fda.gov Import Certification

This action was taken through import alerts and agency notices rather than a Federal Register rule, so it has no Federal Register citation or rulemaking docket.

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Key Research Papers

These papers are background research on cesium-137 in seafood and on cancer risk at low radiation doses. None of them concerns the 2025 shipments.

1. Buesseler KO, Jayne SR, Fisher NS, et al. (2012). Fukushima-derived radionuclides in the ocean and biota off Japan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109(16):5984-5988 — PubMed PMID: 22474387
2. Fisher NS, Beaugelin-Seiller K, Hinton TG, Baumann Z, Madigan DJ, Garnier-Laplace J (2013). Evaluation of radiation doses and associated risk from the Fukushima nuclear accident to marine biota and human consumers of seafood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(26):10670-10675 — PubMed PMID: 23733934
3. Fakhri Y, Mahmudiono T, Ranaei V, et al. (2023). The concentration of radionuclides (lead-210, polonium-210, and cesium-137) in the muscle of sardine fish: a global systematic review, meta-analysis, and exposure assessment. Biological Trace Element Research 201(4):2011-2021 — PubMed PMID: 35588038
4. Franić Z, Petrinec B, Branica G, et al. (2012). Post-Chernobyl investigations of radiocaesium activity concentrations in Adriatic Sea pilchards. Radiation Protection Dosimetry 151(2):314-322 — PubMed PMID: 22345215
5. Brenner DJ, Doll R, Goodhead DT, et al. (2003). Cancer risks attributable to low doses of ionizing radiation: assessing what we really know. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100(24):13761-13766 — PubMed PMID: 14610281
6. Richardson DB, Leuraud K, Laurier D, et al. (2023). Cancer mortality after low dose exposure to ionising radiation in workers in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States (INWORKS): cohort study. BMJ 382:e074520 — PubMed PMID: 37586731

PubMed Topic Searches

1. PubMed: cesium-137 in seafood
2. PubMed: radiocesium in food and dietary intake
3. PubMed: cesium-137 in spices
4. PubMed: low-dose ionizing radiation and cancer risk

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Connections

• FDA Actions of 2025
• FDA and Regulation
• FDA Action Levels for Lead in Baby Food (2025)
• FDA Moves on Self-Affirmed GRAS and Chemical Reviews (2025)
• Radiation and Physical Exposures
• Radon
• Toxins
• Clove
• Culinary and Spice Herbs
• Proteins

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