Scombroid poisoning can result from eating large oily fish which have sat around for too long before being refrigerated or frozen.

Let a yellow jack or tuna rest too long without refrigeration, and you risk scombroid poisoning, because histamines accumulate in the flesh of these fish.

A non-infectious form of foodborne disease, scombroid poisoning, is due to histamine production by bacteria in spoiled food, particularly fish.

One of the toxic agents implicated in scombroid poisoning is histidine, which is broken down into histamine.

Fish is known to succumb to bacterial degradation quickly thus forming high amounts of histamine in the fish which can cause Scombroid poisoning.

The family includes tuna and mackerel, and scombroid poisoning, which causes diarrhea, vomiting and edema, cannot be cooked away.

Recently, there were cases of scombroid poisoning from escolar sold at Balthazar, said Michael LaHara, the downtown restaurant's general manager.

Scombroid poisoning may require treatment with diphenhydramine (Benadryl) 25-50 mg every 6 hours and 1 ranitidine (Zantac) tablet twice a day.

Scombroid poisoning derives its name from the family of fish most commonly associated with the disease, the Scombridae family (tuna, mackerel, skipjack and bonito).

The toxins responsible for most shellfish and fish poisonings, including ciguatera and scombroid poisoning, are heat-resistant to the point where conventional cooking methods do not eliminate them.

Snake mackerel belong to a family of fish that can cause scombroid poisoning, the result of delayed refrigeration, which increases the histamine levels in the fish through bacterial decomposition.

It doesn't taste good and there is the possibility that the fish was allowed to reach an ambient temperature, at which point it is a prime candidate for scombroid poisoning, which can be deadly.

Dr. Neal Flomenbaum, emergency physician in chief at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, said scombroid poisoning, which triggers allergy-like symptoms, was diagnosed in seven of the diners.

The rash associated with scombroid poisoning is a form of urticaria, but most commonly does not include wheals (patchy areas of skin-swelling also known as hives) that may be seen in true allergies.

Delayed refrigeration of fish of the family Scombridae (among them bluefin, yellowfin and skipjack tuna, the Atlantic bonito, and the Atlantic, Pacific and Spanish mackerel) can result in scombroid poisoning.