October 1, 2025 | 11:37 am
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Traces of radionuclide Cesium 137 (Cs-137) were found earlier in the frozen shrimp products of PT Bahari Makmur Sejati (BMS) in the Cikande industrial area. Bara Krishna Hasibuan, an expert staff member of the Coordinating Ministry for Food Affairs, mentioned that traces of the substance are also found in one of the spice export commodities, cloves.
Bara said the Task Force for Handling the Hazards of Radioactive Cesium 137 is still investigating the origins of the contamination affecting the cloves. "Over the past few days, we received reports from the United States. It turns out that the clove products are also contaminated," Bara said after a coordination meeting at the Graha Mandiri in Central Jakarta on Tuesday, September 30, 2025.
Bara said the government is anticipating all possible consequences of the Cs-137 contamination, hoping that no other commodities will be tainted. "We are working swiftly to localize the source of the contamination (the Cikande industrial area). The location has been declareda serious incident zone," Bara said.
Bara was hesitant to disclose the location of the tainted cloves as investigation is underway. But circulating information cited East Java as the origin of the contaminated cloves. "We are tracing the source," he said.
Responding to the findings, Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan said the Cesium 137 contamination on local clove products exported to foreign markets is still under investigation.
The issue of Cs-137 contamination has sparked discourses after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rejected frozen shrimp products from Indonesia.
According to the agency, the contaminated frozen shrimp containers were detected when they entered the ports of Los Angeles, Houston, Savannah, and Miami in the second week of August 2025. However, after the Indonesian government investigated the discovery, it was confirmed that the Cesium-137 did not originate from shrimp products.
The minister explained that the processing of frozen shrimp by PT BMS was contaminated because of its proximity to the steel processing plant of PT Metal Technology Indonesia (PMT). Based on the investigation results, the PT PMT plant triggered the Cesium-137 radiation due to its steel smelting process. The government has declared a serious incident status and temporarily closed production activities in the area.
Minister Zulkifli mentioned that PT PMT obtained raw materials for steel smelting from the Philippines. He suspected that the imported iron ore, screws, and similar items contained Cesium 137, and then spread to the PT BMS frozen shrimp processing plant.
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