Walmart is recalling frozen shrimp after the USDA issued a warning about possible radioactive contamination. Federal investigators say the contaminated shrimp is from an Indonesian firm and it was sold at Walmart stores in 13 states. Louisiana Shrimp Association president Acy Cooper is not surprised by the news.
“We’ve been raising the issue for a long time because the result has been there. It’s not something that just popped up. It’s been there for years, and we’ve been screaming it,” Cooper said.
Cooper says the United States fails to test most of the imported shrimp that comes into our country, so who knows if it’s safe. He says shrimp caught by Louisiana shrimpers does not have any banned chemicals.
“Ask where your shrimp are coming from. Sit down in the restaurant, ask where the shrimp come from. Demand to see the box, because they will lie to you,” Cooper urged.
Cooper says radioactive frozen shrimp sold at Walmart could have been avoided if the U.S. had a more robust testing protocol as the European Union.
“They test up to 50%, and yet we test less than 1%. So, you know there’s a problem whenever they do that. They just dump it on us and drive the prices down and kill our industry, Cooper said.
