[yorwba]

Reading between the lines of [1], bioluminescence is used to detect bacteria/fungi/other organisms in food, but only by adding luciferase to a sample and measuring the light emitted when luciferase reacts with ATP. Because living organisms contain ATP, the ATP content can be used as a proxy for contamination by microorganisms.

But I didn't find anything on bioluminescence occurring naturally in the kinds of bacteria you'd want to be warned about. Did you ever personally see glowing food?

[1] http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs/27440/InTech-Use_of_atp_biolu...

[somebodynew]

Rotting meat definitely glows. I've personally seen decaying mammal carcasses glowing in the woods at night (always either green like foxfire or an odd almost monochromatic cyan that must really stimulate the eye's rod cells).

It's very faint and would be difficult to notice without trees to shield it from moonlight. A camera could pick it up with a long exposure.

[nkurz]

Thanks, I hadn't known about this effect. Apparently it's been known for a long time. In the 1600's, Robert Boyle claimed to have been able to read an issue of The Philosophical Transactions by the light of a rotting Neck of Veal: https://blogs.royalsociety.org/publishing/boyle-and-biolumin...

[retSava]

Luciferase, easily the coolest (hottest?) name I've come across in a while. Here's the wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luciferase

"Luciferase is a generic term for the class of oxidative enzymes that produce bioluminescence"

and,

"Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism"