Is there some agency that is charged with reviewing all the foods we've been eating for centuries, for the purpose of driving us insane about what we can and cannot eat? Seems hardly a month goes by without some food being declared unfit for consumption. It started with coffee than went to milk and I've lost track of how many foods have been deemed unfit for consumption. Is this an industry? What's next apples?

Such is the lament of one commenter on Jill Richardson's article "Shrimp's Dirty Secrets: Why America's Favorite Seafood Is a Health and Environmental Nightmare."

And yes. Now the big bad food is shrimp. Shrimp!

Given all the scare and horror stories around about various types of food, you think something as seemingly benign as shrimp would be OK. Ooops. No, it's not.

Now, some environmental organizations are warning against shrimp consumption. It's not just that some practices, like bottom trawling, hurt the ocean eco-system, but that in various third world countries, standards for fishing aren't quite up to snuff. According to Jill Richardson of AlterNet:

Upon arrival in the U.S., few if any, are inspected by the FDA, and when researchers have examined imported ready-to-eat shrimp, they found 162 separate species of bacteria with resistance to 10 different antibiotics.

The recommendation is to try to purchase shrimp from more sustainable, regulated sources. This includes shrimp produced in the United States:

The U.S. has good regulations on shrimp farming, so purchasing shrimp farmed in the U.S. is not a bad way to go. Wild shrimp, with a few exceptions, is typically obtained via trawling and should be avoided. The notable exceptions are spot prawns from British Columbia, caught in traps similar to those used for catching lobster, and the small salad shrimp like the Northern shrimp from the East Coast or pink shrimp from Oregon, both of which are certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.

The other suggestion is to reduce consumption somewhat.

Unfortunately, given we have such a huge population on the planet, and many poor countries without proper regulation of their farming industries, finding totally pure food can be a challenge. I feel a balance is best - try to support sustainable food sources when possible, but don't freak out if you happen to have a few pieces of shrimp from an unknown source. If you haven't yet died from shrimp or landed in the hospital over some shrimp cocktail, it's unlikely that you will anytime soon.

As for me, I was never a huge fan of shrimp in the first place. So this is just another reason to not be overly motivated to eat some.