Microbiologist Janine Trempy of Oregon State University's College of Science in Corvallis, Oregon, explains that changes in pigment-bearing cells in Siamese fighting fish has led to a new technology which has been patented and may be developed into a test that signals disease-causing bacteria in food.

The new approach builds on the pigment-bearing cells -- called erythrophores -- that change in appearance in response to environmental threats. The OSU findings have been published in Microbial Biotechnology.

"We discovered that the pigment bearing cells, erythrophores, respond immediately to certain food associated, toxin producing bacteria responsible for making humans sick," Trempy said in a statement."There is potential to directly assess the toxic behavior of the contaminating bacteria, not just the simple presence of the DNA or protein of these bacteria. And this response can be easily seen under a low-power microscope and quickly quantified, numerically, to describe the intensity of the situation."

Trempy predicts this new test will be quicker, more user-friendly and when commercially available "provide a higher level of assurance to the consumer while avoiding the waste of millions of dollars worth of food " that is actually safe.