Save my life, the sushi in the refrigerator actually glows!!

Some time ago, I was surfing the Internet and found a netizen who wanted to eat sushi at night, but ended up experiencing a horror movie plot - the sushi he took out of the refrigerator actually glowed...

I won't post the pictures yet, just imagine the scene: late at night, you are hungry and don't want to turn on the light, and then you remember there is a box of sushi in the refrigerator. When you get the sushi and close the refrigerator door, there is a piece of sushi shining in the dark! !

God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. But God never said, "Sushi must also have light!"

Why does sushi glow?

It is not uncommon for sushi to glow, and netizens from all over the world feel the same way.

In 2020, a Thai netizen bought shrimp sushi at a convenience store, which emitted a faint blue light in the dark, so he posted it online. In 2018, a Japanese netizen bought egg sushi, which emitted starlight in the darkness.

I really don't dare to say it.

Glowing Egg Sushi

If sushi glows, there are probably two possibilities.

The first is that sushi ingredients are infected by luminous bacteria, such as Pseudomonas, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Vibrio fischeri, Vibrio phosphoviorum, etc. Many people have discovered that raw pork emits blue-green fluorescence, and Pseudomonas fluorescens has been detected in "luminous pork".

Glow-in-the-dark pork

Pseudomonas fluorescens is an opportunistic pathogen (some bacteria do not cause disease under normal circumstances, but can cause disease under certain special conditions, such as when the host's immune defense mechanism is damaged). Generally, it is harmless to the human body and can be killed by cooking. However, the presence of Pseudomonas fluorescens indicates that the food is likely to be stored, prepared, and sold in poor hygiene conditions.

There are also cases where the ingredients used to make sushi glow, not because of the infection of the ingredients. However, this is more demanding. The firefly squid produced in Toyama Prefecture, Japan, will glow on the sea surface during the spawning season from March to May every year. The luciferin in the firefly squid undergoes a series of complex chemical reactions under the catalysis of luciferase, and light is the energy released in this process. Although the firefly squid itself glows, if you want to eat glowing firefly squid sushi, you have to make sushi into your mouth immediately after catching the firefly squid.

The glowing beach caused by firefly squid

Image source: 9gag.com

Glowing Firefly Squid

Image source: pgw.udn.com.tw

Another small probability event is that the seafood used to make sushi is not only extremely fresh, but also happens to have eaten bioluminescent plankton (such as krill) and has not yet digested it before it is made into sushi. In this case, you can almost buy a lottery ticket.

If you encounter glowing sushi other than the two rare cases mentioned above, it is better not to eat it for safety reasons. First, it is impossible to determine whether the glowing bacteria and other bacteria have grown due to limited production and storage conditions. Second, sushi is mostly eaten raw and cannot be cooked to kill bacteria.

Some of the glowing sushi is actually edible!

The glowing sushi mentioned above are mostly caused by infection with luminous bacteria. But there are chefs who make glowing sushi that is both good-looking and edible.

Looks like it's ok?

Image source: collateral.it

In 2012, a craze for eating glowing sushi emerged in the United States. Someone uploaded a video of cooking glowing sushi to the Internet. In the video, two chefs** mixed tiny fluorescent fish with wasabi and mashed it,** then spread it on seaweed and rice. Under ultraviolet light, the mixture on the sushi fluoresces.

The fluorescent fish used in this glowing sushi is a genetically modified zebrafish. Zebrafish is an ornamental fish named after its zebra-like appearance with multiple dark blue stripes all over its body. Researchers implanted the fluorescent gene of the Victoria jellyfish into zebrafish, and obtained a variety of colorful fish. The genetically modified zebrafish was initially cultivated to determine the pollution of water bodies - when the water quality is polluted, the fluorescence intensity of the genetically modified zebrafish will also increase.

Transgenic zebrafish

Image source: glofish.com

In addition to using fluorescent fish, the effect of making sushi glow can also be achieved by combining specific ingredients in food with excitation light. The principle is that after the photoreactive substance is irradiated with excitation light (stroke your tongue), electron transition occurs and energy is released in the form of light energy.

Under the irradiation of excitation light, proteins, vitamins, etc. can all glow. For example, vitamin B2 solution will emit yellow-green fluorescence under the irradiation of black light.

This yellow-green fluorescence is actually the effect of mixing the luminous fish and mustard powder under specific lighting. Image source: foodprocessing-technology.com

A pop-up bar in Abu Dhabi called Glow-in-the-Dark uses this principle to make luminous sushi - fluorescent pink nigiri sushi, electric blue and neon green sashimi sushi. According to the bar's owner, the team tried to find as many ingredients as possible that can use these light-reactive ingredients and contain vitamin B2 as possible when developing the menu, such as bananas, peppers, honey, etc.

Add fluorescent drinks and the atmosphere suddenly becomes weird?

Image source: foodprocessing-technology.com

In addition, in Japanese sushi, there is also the concept of "glowing fish" (光り物), but the luminescence here is not the same as the fluorescence we mentioned above. It refers to the blue-backed silver-bodied fish with a bluish-black back and shiny skin, such as horse mackerel, bluefin saury, etc.

Sparkling indeed!

Image source: kimukazu.com

This type of fish is not easy to preserve, and it will taste fishy if you are not used to it, so it is often preserved by pickling with vinegar or salt. Although it is not considered a high-end sushi ingredient, it has a unique flavor.

Source: Museum