An enormous ‘do not eat’ warning has been issued in the United States after shipments of shrimp sold by Walmart that came from an Indonesian food supplier tested positive for a radioactive isotope.

As authorities race to put the pieces together, the FDA has issued an urgent plea for Americans not to eat or serve the potentially contaminated meat.

The product at the centre of the radioactive food saga is Great Value raw frozen Shrimp sold at Walmart.

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Raw frozen shrimp products that were processed by PT Bahari Makmur Sejati (doing business as BMS Foods), a company located in Indonesia, and sold at Walmart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia is potentially at risk after multiple shipping containers that carried the meat, returned positive results for Cesium-137 (Cs-137).

“In conjunction with other information, FDA determined that product from PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati violates 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,” the FDA said in a statement.

The FDA specified that the Cs-137 detection was actually in a shipment that did not enter the US commerce.

It said long-term exposure, like eating the product over time, could create an “elevated risk of cancer, resulting from damage to DNA within living cells of the body”.

“If you recently purchased one of the impacted lots of Great Value raw frozen shrimp from Walmart, throw it away. Do not eat or serve this product,” the FDA advice to Americans said.

The FDA said that initial testing had not yet confirmed if any of the products that had made their way to Walmart stores or into American homes had positive Cs-137 results.

America reacts to potentially radioactive shrimp

Online, Americans were quick to react to the rather unusual warning.

One person shared a GIF of a person glowing green, joking it was them after eating the shrimp.

Another shared an image of Lady Gaga with a glittery lobster on her head, obviously not getting too caught up in the specifics of which crustacean was impacted.

A third joked the radioactive shrimp could result in a hulk-like effect on a physique.

Jokes aside, do not eat the potentially radioactive shrimp Americans.