Do Your Pork Chops Glow in the Dark?

Some do in Australia, it's reported, and has some folks upset.

Turns out the freezer luminiscence is caused by a harmless bacteria, Pseudomonas fluorescens, which the Mail & Guardian Online says "is nature's way of preventing frost damage."

That's news to me, certainly, but they don't explain why a live pig would need to protect its muscles against freezer burn -- a pretty amazing evolutionary trick, I should think. Obviously, I don't understand the complexities of evolution's brainless brilliance.

Though the bacteria are harmless, glowing meat "is a tell-tale sign that the meat is not absolutely fresh and may have passed its use-by date." So it's okay as a freezer light, but don't eat it.