Glowing prawns...

[BuckyKat]

Can any help? I bought some cooked prawns yesterday to go in a fish pie and put a few down for the cat...he didn't eat them but we left them down over night. When the b/f got up next morning it was still dark and as he walked past the plate he noticed they were glowing, bright green, almost luminous....we didn't suffer any ill effects from eating them (not those on the plate, the ones the night before in the pie) but I'm really concerned - is this normal? Any thoughts? thanks!

[skyep]

Kev - Was there any need for that? Obviously they wouldn't glow in the daylight!

Buckykat - If you still have them, get them analysed by some food standards people!

[kev100]

please accept my apology that was bad mannered it wasn't meant to to sound so rude, it came out completely wrong.

[scubadiver]

Because the prawns had been left at room temperature overnight, there is a chance that they could have been playing host to a bacteria known as Pseudomonas fluorescence, which glows in the dark. Although it isn't a cause of food poisoning, it can be a marker for bacteria which are, so I would get rid of the prawns.

[Daave]

bacteria of this kind is basicly harmless in small amounts, your body wont reget it as poison till there is a certain level in your system, or if there is a massive sudden increase,

chances are that you did consume a small amount, but not a large enough amount to do any damage, thus your body took it for the team!

overnight at room temp? hmm, that should be around 8 hours?? some bacteria can grow/multiply and double within a few munutes,

so if there were one bacteria on each prawn at midnight, there could be literally billions of them by morning...

[spk]

I was going to have prawns in my stirfry tonight dont think I will bother now bleeurggghh

[BuckyKat]

Kev, I can't see what you said so I'm not offended and everyone else thanks for your help....it really was like something from X files and its put me off prawns for a while...buts its nice to know its harmless..

[theprof]

scubadiver is spot-on here.

Pseudomonas fluorescens is a light-emitting totally harmless species that can thrive even in fridges. It is a well recognised bacteria on seafood and meat.

The bacteria will not cause food poisoning, but they are sometimes indicative of the presence of nastier pathogens in the food which may well make you ill. Because of this, the food is best discarded.

The danger is from the proliferation of the nastier pathogens.

In the meantime, try not to go out in the dark for a few days!