WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) is sounding the alarm after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered radioactive shrimp from Indonesia being sold in American grocery stores under Walmart’s “Great Value” label.
“If you eat it, how could you end up looking like the alien in Alien? Because the shrimp was radioactive. I kid you not … I guarantee you will grow an extra ear,” Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy bellowed during a dramatic speech on the Senate floor, brandishing an image of the chest-burster creature from the 1979 sci-fi horror classic.
In late August, the FDA announced that raw frozen shrimp sold at Walmart locations in 13 states—including Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania—tested positive for cesium-137, a radioactive isotope. The agency immediately issued a recall of the contaminated products.
But Kennedy said the problem didn’t stop there.
“A few days later, it happened again,” Kennedy said from the Senate floor. “This time, the FDA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found 26,460 packages of shrimp cocktail and 18,000 bags of frozen cooked shrimp being sold at Walmart and Kroger stores nationwide. They contained the same radioactive isotope.”
To underscore the seriousness of the situation, Kennedy leaned on pop culture—holding up a photo of the creature from the sci-fi classic Alien.
“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. “Now, let me tell you what I am talking about. 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 cesium-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.”
Kennedy criticized the U.S. government’s weak inspection standards compared to other countries, warning that foreign shrimp not only poses risks of radiation exposure but also carries threats of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
“NOAA needs to do a better job of inspecting the shrimp that is sold from other countries that don’t abide by the same standards we do to the consumers of the United States of America,” Kennedy said.
The senator also tied the issue to Louisiana’s struggling shrimp industry, which has been battered by cheap foreign imports. According to PBS, roughly 25% of all shrimp eaten in the U.S. comes from Louisiana, but foreign imports have saturated the market, driving down prices and pushing local shrimpers to the brink.
“Now, I am biased,” Kennedy admitted. “I believe in homegrown Louisiana shrimp, fresh out of the Gulf, not radioactive. But I understand that some stores prefer to buy foreign shrimp because it is cheaper. Now we know why: The damn stuff is radioactive.”
Kennedy’s latest push adds to growing calls from Gulf Coast lawmakers for stricter inspections on imported seafood and greater support for local fishermen.
“This is not about politics,” Kennedy said. “It’s about protecting the American people from dangerous food and about protecting a Louisiana industry that has been the backbone of our coastal communities for generations.”
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