Quote from: RubyDoo on January 29, 2013, 07:56 PM
Weird one Phil. The intestinal tract on a prawn and similar actually runs down the back. They are not normally bad ( dangerous ) to eat but not nice to look at and can be a bit bitty in larger ones. The pics above appear to show the line on the belly side. Best removed anyway I agree but OP seems to have removed the tract on the back in the cooked picture.

Interesting.  As someone who doesn't normally worry about food poisoning (I ate half an tub of pate for lunch, already opened and cut several weeks ago, having first removed a layer of mould-covered gelatine from the top), I am a bit picky about prawns and always remove /both/ "veins" (dorsal and vental) for the simple reason that I don't didn't know which one is the digestive tract !

ADDED : But I do now

** Phil.

I always remove the top tract now from prawns - having suffered a bout of severe food poisoning within 10 minutes of eating a prawn cocktail many years ago.  Once bitten !!!  Shellfish seem to be my Achilles heel - went down with gastro-enteritis after eating local clams / mussels in Rye 2 years ago