Russian regulatory authorities have recently reported once again that a batch of Arctic prawns (Pandalus borealis) imported from Greenland was found to have arsenic levels far exceeding the standard. The batch in question was cooked and frozen Arctic prawns, sampled from an import shipment of approximately 18 tons. Test results showed that the arsenic content was as high as 20 mg/kg, which is four times the allowable limit under current Russian food safety regulations. The batch has been clearly identified as substandard and has been handed over to the regulatory system for handling.
It is highly worthy of the industry's attention that this is not the first time that Russia has detected abnormal levels of heavy metals in Arctic sweet shrimp. According to information previously disclosed by Russian official testing institutions and industry media, during the safety monitoring of imported aquatic products in the second half of 2025, the regulatory authorities have repeatedly found significantly elevated arsenic levels in batches of cooked frozen Arctic sweet shrimp, with some samples exceeding the standard by several times. The fact that these issues have been continuously reported indicates that such problems are not isolated cases but have evolved into structural risks that repeatedly occur in the import chain of cold-water shrimp.
In the food safety supervision system, arsenic is classified as a toxic element and is usually managed together with lead, cadmium, mercury and other heavy metals as pollutants. Although arsenic is chemically classified as a "metalloid", in the regulatory practice and trade context of the aquatic products industry, arsenic exceeding the standard is usually directly regarded as a heavy metal pollution issue. Therefore, the consecutive notifications from the Russian side about abnormal arsenic levels in Arctic sweet shrimp are essentially equivalent to multiple warnings about the heavy metal risks of this category.
If the above-mentioned test results are evaluated within the framework of China's food safety standards system, the level of risk is equally significant. According to the "GB 2762—2022 National Food Safety Standard: Limits of Contaminants in Foods", the inorganic arsenic limit for aquatic animals other than fish (including crustaceans) is 0.5 mg/kg. In China's regulatory practice, it is common for enterprises to first test total arsenic as a screening indicator; once the total arsenic level is significantly higher than the inorganic arsenic limit, further testing of inorganic arsenic content is required to make a final determination of compliance.
Under the most stringent and commonly used conservative assumptions in risk assessment, if the 20 mg/kg disclosed by the Russian side is directly compared with the inorganic arsenic limit value in China's national standards, it is equivalent to exceeding the limit by 40 times. Even without making such an extreme conversion, merely from the perspective of the regulatory process, such a high total arsenic value itself has far exceeded the risk screening threshold of the Chinese market and is highly likely to be directly classified as a high-risk batch at the port or in circulation and subject to control measures.
From the perspective of health risks, long-term consumption of food with high arsenic content may gradually accumulate in the human body. Authoritative institutions have pointed out that chronic arsenic exposure is clearly associated with increased risks of neurological damage, skin lesions, cardiovascular diseases, and various cancers (such as skin cancer, lung cancer, and bladder cancer). In contrast, short-term large intake may cause acute poisoning symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and sudden drops in blood pressure.
Among them, the elderly, pregnant women and children are regarded as one of the most sensitive groups to arsenic exposure. Due to their lower body weight and incomplete development of metabolic and detoxification systems, the potential harm of heavy metals to infants and young children is significantly higher than that to adults under the same dose. Long-term excessive intake may cause irreversible effects on neurodevelopment, immune function and growth and development. Therefore, against the backdrop of repeated detection of abnormal heavy metals, the consumption safety and applicable population of cold-water products like Arctic sweet shrimp, which were originally considered "high-end and healthy", are facing re-examination.
For the aquaculture industry, the signals sent by this series of events are very clear: high-end production areas do not equal low risk, and cold water resources are not inherently immune to heavy metal pollution. As regulations tighten and testing frequencies increase in various countries, heavy metal indicators such as arsenic are upgrading from "routine testing items" to core variables that influence trade flows and market confidence.
Overall, the repeated detection of excessive heavy metals in Greenland Arctic prawns by Russia is not just a single quality incident but a continuous warning to the cold-water prawn industry chain. Against the backdrop of more rational consumer behavior and intensified supervision, how to systematically reduce the risk of heavy metals is becoming a key test for this category to maintain its high-end positioning.
